New Belgium Brewing sold to Australian company

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — New Belgium Brewing Co., the maker of Fat Tire Amber Ale, the Voodoo Ranger IPA series and other popular craft beers, has been sold to a subsidiary of Japan’s Kirin Holdings Co. Limited.

Lion Little World Beverages, of Australia, will acquire 100% of the Fort Collins, Colorado-based brewery in an all-cash deal. The sale is pending approval from regulators and New Belgium’s employee stock ownership plan. It is expected to close by the end of 2019, according to a news release.

Established in 1991, New Belgium’s headquarters will remain in Fort Collins. The company also has an outpost in Denver and a brewery in western North Carolina — a 150,000-square-foot facility in Asheville’s River Arts District that opened in 2016. It is the largest craft brewery in Colorado and, though its N.C. production is not broken out separately, likely ranks among the industry’s biggest players in the Tar Heel State, too.

Read more here about what the deal means for the brewery's future.

Cox Media Group