If you made it out to the Duff’s Autumn Beer Dinner in November 2007 or a couple of events when she last visited in 2009, then you had a chance to meet New Belgium Brewer Lauren Salazar.

Well if you didn’t have a chance to meet her, she’s coming back into town this week to kick off the New Belgium’s newest year-round selection, the Ranger IPA.  Here’s a list of events she’ll be attending this week:

Tuesday, Feb. 9th

• STL Hops/New Belgium Party at Mattingly Brewing Co.

Wednesday, Feb. 10th

• Pi Restaurant (Delmar) Ranger IPA/Lips of Faith Tasting with Lauren Salazar 7-8:30 pm
• Ranger IPA/Lips of Faith Tasting at Dressel’s Pub with Lauren Salazar 9-11 pm

Thursday, Feb. 11th

• Ranger IPA/Lips of Faith Tasting at The Stable with Lauren Salazar 6-8 pm
• Ranger IPA/Lips of Faith Tasting at The Bridge 9-11 pm

Lauren is a great brewer and provides plenty of information about New Belgium beers, so make the time to go out and visit one of these events. Here’s Lauren’s bio from NB:

Lauren Salazar, New Belgium Brewing Company

Lauren is the Sensory Specialist and a Quality team member at New Belgium Brewing Company, where she has been employed for over eleven years and sensory-focused for over ten. She developed the sensory program from a basic production check to its present program and is responsible for all facets from design to implementation to re-engineering. Other areas of interest and fun at the brewery include brewery-wide flavor training, new product development, small/esoteric beer production and wood barrel project blender. Lauren is a judge at the World Beer Cup and Great American Beer Festival, has presented and taught short courses for the CBC, WBC, AHA, ASBC, MBAA and many others.

Salazar received her BSW from the University of Georgia a lifetime ago and holds a Certificate from UC Davis for Applied Sensory Science and Consumer Testing.

Lauren Salazar from the New Belgium Brewing Company is coming back into town and NB Beer Ranger Joel Winn has set up an exclusive meet and greet for STL Hops members!

This event is being held at Mattingly Brewing Company on Tuesday, February 9th from 6-8PM.  Joel and Lauren will be on hand to discuss New Belgium’s newest year-round beer Ranger IPA as well as giving out some swag.

If you have not had a chance to meet Lauren, this is the perfect opportunity to meet one of the nicest people I’ve met in the brewing industry.  As Lauren is responsible for the La Folie series, this is you chance to ask her all of the questions you’d ever want to about sour beers.

Joel is providing me with a whole list of events Lauren is particiapting in next week, so stay tuned for that.

Note: If you’re reading this post, then you’re a member of STL Hops. You don’t have to sign up or do anything special to attend this event. Just come on out.

This was our last full day in Denver, so we headed to Fort Collins, CO to check out New Belgium Brewing.  I was lucky and was able to visit New Belgium last year during GABF.   While my tour last year was a lot of fun, this year we got a tour from New Belgium’s Sensory Specialist, Lauren Salazar.

Notes from Day 3, New Belgium Brewing:

• It shouldn’t surprise you that this place is huge.  Just enormous.
• Which is why they’re on schedule to do 500,000bbls this year.
• This first photo below is the original brewing system that New Belgium started with.
• Check out Sponge Bob eating a pizza!
• Yes, this is the second day in a row I got to visit the top of a brewery’s fermentation tanks.
• As you may know, this company is very green.  You can see the new solar panels they’re installing.
• Drinking beer right off of the large wooden barrels is really cool.
• I asked Lauren about the change in La Folie, she told me that she realized that she was making the beer more for her palette and not for the consumers.  Which is why the sourness has been scaled back a bit to make for a more balanced beer.
• While we saw the bottling line, we didn’t actually get to see it in action.
• But I did get to see it last year and I’ve included a video below.
• Yes, that really is a slide and yes you really can slide down it.

[View with PicLens]

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I wish I had more photos from all of the events New Belgium‘s Lauren Salazar participated in, but I either A) Forgot my camera or B) Didn’t attend Wednesday night’s debauchery.  But, I did manage to remember my camera on Thursday night!   So here are some photos for you to enjoy:

[View with PicLens]

If you made it out to the Duff’s Autumn Beer Dinner in November 2007, then you had a chance to meet New Belgium Brewer Lauren Salazar.  Well if you didn’t have a chance to meet her, she’s coming back into town to kick off the Lips of Faith series hitting a few new locations.  Here’s a list of events she’ll be attending this week:

Wednesday, Feb. 18th
Cicero’s Beer School with Lauren Salazar 5:30-6:30 pm

Bailey’s Chocolate Bar Lips Of Faith Reception and Meet and Greet with Lauren Salazar 8 pm -?

Thursday, Feb. 19th
Pi Restaurant Lips of Faith Reception and Meet and Greet with Lauren Salazar 6-8 pm

Friday, Feb. 20th
The Stable Lips of Faith Reception and Meet and Greet with Lauren Salazar 5-7 pm

Lauren is a great brewer and provides plenty of information about New Belgium beers, so make the time to go out and visit one of these events.  Here’s Lauren’s bio from NB:

Lauren Salazar, New Belgium Brewing Company

Lauren is the Sensory Specialist and a Quality team member at New Belgium Brewing Company, where she has been employed for over eleven years and sensory-focused for over ten. She developed the sensory program from a basic production check to its present program and is responsible for all facets from design to implementation to re-engineering. Other areas of interest and fun at the brewery include brewery-wide flavor training, new product development, small/esoteric beer production and wood barrel project blender. Lauren is a judge at the World Beer Cup and Great American Beer Festival, has presented and taught short courses for the CBC, WBC, AHA, ASBC, MBAA and many others.

Salazar received her BSW from the University of Georgia a lifetime ago and holds a Certificate from UC Davis for Applied Sensory Science and Consumer Testing.