New Belgium again delays East Coast opening

New Belgium Brewing Co. is pushing the opening of its Liquid Center tasting room in Asheville, North Carolina, from March to May, the company announced Wednesday.

Construction of New Belgium's 133,000-square-foot facility is taking longer than expected, spokeswoman Susanne Hackett said. Earlier this year, the Fort Collins-based brewery bumped the opening of its East Coast site from February to March.

"We want to make sure everything is dialed in for our guests, and the May 2 opening will allow us to do that," Hackett said.

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New Belgium selected Asheville for its East Cost expansion in 2012. At full build-out, the $140 million brewery could produce up to 500,000 barrels of beer for sale in the eastern United States. The original New Belgium brewery in Fort Collins is expected to continue serving the western half of the country.

Test brewing has started at the Asheville site. New Belgium expects to start producing Fat Tire and other beers for consumers "real soon," Hackett said.

Ahead of opening, New Belgium is putting final touches on the 6,000-square-foot Asheville Liquid Center tasting room and securing permits.

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"It has been an interesting process to transfer our values from Fort Collins to Asheville," Hackett said. "In that process, we’ve been able to build a similar culture to Fort Collins', but one that is our own."

Some describe New Belgium as playing a key role in revitalizing Asheville's historic River Arts District near the city's downtown. The company is building on a brownfield site —  land previously used for industrial purposes — along the French Broad River.

"We've used 14 linear miles of wood that was salvaged from the stockyard that used to be onsite," Hackett said. New Belgium has also worked with local North Carolina artists for the Asheville tasting room.

An opening celebration for the Asheville brewery will be announced in May. "A New Belgium-style CeleBEERation" is scheduled for Aug. 27 to mark the company's 25th anniversary.

Growth and data reporter Adrian D. Garcia can be reached at 970-224-7835 or Twitter.com/ adriandgarcia. For a weekly roundup of his stories and other business news, sign up for the Biz Beat newsletter at bit.ly/bizbeatsignup.