As New Belgium Brewing Co., Fort Collins, Colo., celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2011, the craft brewery had grown from brewing 60 cases a week at the home of co-founders Jeff Lebesch and Kim Jordan in 1991, to selling more than 700,000 barrels of beer a year.
Efforts to lower the calorie counts in beverages have helped spark a number of innovations from many facets of the industry, including equipment manufacturers. As more beverage-makers look to take down the calories in their products through sweetener blend formulations, suppliers of processing automation equipment also are working to develop equipment to handle these new formats.