This New Beer Tastes Like 'Torched Earth' to Show the Effects of Climate Change

A beer with a powerful message.

Courtesy of New Belgium
Courtesy of New Belgium

New Belgium Brewing is marking Earth Day this year by, well, pleading with you to stop treating our planet so badly. The Colorado-based brewery has created a new beer, dubbed Fat Tire Torched Earth Ale, to bring awareness to climate change issues. And while you might not be so psyched to actually taste it (the flavor is rather indicative of its name), New Belgium is hoping it gets your attention. 

The Fat Tire spinoff was created with "some of the less-than-ideal ingredients that would be available and affordable to brewers in a climate-ravaged future without aggressive action now to confront the climate crisis," New Belgium said in a press release. Basically, it's meant to taste bad as a reminder that this could be our future. It was designed "to mimic the impact wildfires will have on water supply" and is a "dark starchy liquid with smokey aromatics [that] is not likely to win any awards, but does highlight the stakes of climate change for beer drinkers everywhere." 

"If you don't have a climate plan, you don't have a business plan," New Belgium CEO Steve Fechheimer said in a statement. "Aggressive action to help solve the climate crisis is not only an urgent environmental and social imperative—it's also a no-brainer for companies seeking to create long-term shareholder value, compete with rivals like China, and create good-paying jobs here at home. As a medium-sized company, New Belgium can only have a medium-sized impact. We need more of the big guys to step up, too."

Courtesy of New Belgian

If you're brave enough to try it, the beer will be available at both of the brewing company's Fort Collins, Colorado and Asheville, North Carolina taprooms. The Fat Tire Torched Earth, which was brewed in very limited supply, will only be available until it's sold out though—which, I don't know, might be a while. That name doesn't exactly scream buy me.

This isn't a new look for New Belgium either. The company has long been devoted to its sustainability mission. Just last year, Fat Tire became "America's first certified carbon neutral beer." Hopefully, we can turn things around before every batch starts tasting like this one. 

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Megan Schaltegger is a staff writer at Thrillist.