New Belgium’s partnership with NC State in creating the university’s own beer, Old Tuffy, will help fund its new fermentation science minor through the profit of Old Tuffy sales.
On Aug. 5, Old Tuffy hit the shelves in stores across North Carolina. Old Tuffy is a premium lager created by the people at New Belgium who partnered with NC State to trademark the product. A portion of the sales will go back to the university, benefiting both the school and brewing company according to Chris Allen, the brand activation manager for New Belgium.
K.P. Sandeep, head of NC State’s Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences, explained that NC State had already intended to create a fermentation science minor and now the partnership with New Belgium will speed up the process.
“We are going to be creating two new courses along with our existing course to create a fermentation science minor, and we have started the process of getting the course approval,” Sandeep said. “Money associated with the contract will come to NC State, and NC State will give us that money for both buying the equipment and personnel for teaching those courses.”
According to Sandeep, brewing courses offered by the university are relatively new, with the first being offered in spring 2019.
Allen said that New Belgium previously partnered with Colorado State to launch Old Aggie last summer. The company is native to Colorado but has a second location in North Carolina and wanted to partner with a university in the state as well.
“The initial conversation started internally about 18 months ago,” Allen stated. “We were already spit-balling ideas about the potential idea of doing it in North Carolina and who we would do it with. NC State was at the top of the list, and I think we had our first conversation with them in the fall of last year.”
Allen explained that NC State was chosen because the school already had a brewing science program and was excited about the idea of collaborating.
“They showed mutual interest in us and were really excited to see what ideas we could bring to the table and partner with them,” Allen said. “In January or February, contracts started to get signed, and on Aug. 5th we had beer on the shelves.”
Michael Craft, New Belgium’s ambassador, said that this partnership reaches a wider audience of people who may not be familiar with the company’s beers.
“This might be an eye opening opportunity for someone drinking Old Tuffy to learn about New Belgium and the fact that we are 100% employee-owned and try to be a business as a force for good,” Craft said.
Allen also said the Old Tuffy launch parties that happened in Raleigh, Asheville, Charlotte and Wilmington, saying that every one of them had an astounding amount of success. New Belgium collaborated with the Alumni Association for the Raleigh launch party and just over 1000 people showed up.
So far, Old Tuffy has been successful, and according to Allen, other cities in North Carolina are just as excited about the product as they are in Raleigh. Allen said that these sales are significant because they benefit NC State’s fermentation program as well as New Belgium.
“We are selling every drop of the liquid in the state,” Allen said. “Everybody state-wide is excited, and the demand is strong in every corner of the state just as it is in Wake County.”
