Alcohol belts of Europe
Pictured above, a map roughly depicting the “alcohol belts” Europe needs no key. The colors represent the dominance of wine, beer, and distilled spirits, respectively.
[link via Strange Maps]
Beer Festival by Daveybot on Flickr
A few weekends ago we received a mysterious visitor: Scott from Re-tramp Across the Continent. Scott, who is tracing the route of 19th century journalist Charles Lummis on his tramp across the Southwest, stopped by as he approached the Rocky Mountains. As a consequence, we spent an afternoon visiting historic Denver…and a morning visiting the historic Coors Brewery in Golden, Colorado.
I say historic, because it is. The company’s founder, Adolph Coors (née Khurs), was born in Bavarian Prussia and immigrated to the U.S. in 1868. Among practicing different trades, Coors had been employed for some time as a brewer’s assistant. He arrived to this country via New York, relocated to Chicago, and finally settled in Denver in 1872, eventually taking control of a local bottling firm. 2 years later, Adolph Coors’ “Golden Brewery” opened it’s doors at the site of an abandoned Tannery in Golden Colorado, about 15 miles away from Denver proper. I don’t think there’s evidence that Lummis visited the Golden Brewery, but its opening predates his 1884 trip by a decade.
More Beer by Luciano Joaquim on Flickr
The first stage in the tour comprised a few displays depicting Coors history, including dated commercials from the 70’s and 80’s (pretty funny! See the example below via Youtube) and a bit about how Coors survived prohibition by selling malted milk and “near beer.” Another fun fact: Bill Coors developed a 2-piece aluminum can in 1959 when other brewers were using steel canning.
We also learned that the brewery sits on about 55 acres of Golden valley land. In fact, Golden, CO’s water is Coors’ claim to fame; as the tour recording put it, “it flows from the mountains.”
My favorite part of the tour was the brew house. Not only was it full of giant machines and gleaming copper, but it had such a delicious aroma. I’m not a fan of beer, but I do love the smell of warm, fermenting yeast that breweries offer. This brewery was full of copper kettles…big copper kettles! Three different types of kettles are used during the brewing process.
In one, a malt mash is added; in another the mash is filtered out to give the beer it’s malted sugars. Lastly, hops are introduced for flavor. Once this mix is fermented (insert lovely smell here), beer is born.
But after all this, Coors still needs to cold filter its beer to remove even small remnants of yeast or other particles.
Kettles by Scott Shumaker
Here’s a fun fact…do you know what Coors does with its discarded yeast? It goes to the Purina company to become an ingredient in cat food. What about the discarded grain? sent to feed cattle on local farms.
After a brief stop to hear about quality control practices (Coors does enlist taste testers), we were ushered in for a mid-tour pause to rest and take refreshment. Guess what the refreshment was? Coors light “silver bullet” and Coors Banquet beers.
There are two very different stories about how these beers came to be named. “Silver bullet” comes from Bill Coors‘ daughter; she overheard her friends calling the light beer by this name and it caught on with the American public forever after. The second story may be no more than legend. Supposedly, in the 19th century, area miners would throw “banquets” or parties where they’d imbibe plenty of Coors beer, their preferred “banquet beer.”
Aside from its namesake beverages, Coors also produces Killian’s Irish Red, Blue Moon, and Keystone products. On our way to the (impressive) packing facility, we learned that 300 rail cars and 1800 trucks full of these beer products leave the Coors Golden Brewery site every week for distribution. (One rail car alone carries over 100 thousand bottles or cans of beer)!
At the end of tour it was time for, you guessed it, more samples. Visitors enjoyed up to three free pints of libations.
Was I glad I visited the Coors factory? Yes, I was. The tour was interesting and choc full of details for those who didn’t want to skip around. I would definitely recommend it to someone who enjoys any of Coors’ products.
Would I visit again? Probably not by my lonesome. However, if guests are in town and are eager to go, I’d be happy to oblige.
The Heinz Ketchup sign atop the Heinz History Center building by alexabboud on Flickr
Why is it Heinz 57? Well, there used to be 57 varieties of Heinz products, a list of which was posted this week on Bleat. Link up with the official company web site for more Heinz history.
Ever wanted a cup with a secret cookie-storage compartment? Find that among 42 off-the-wall mugs, featured on Crooked Brains.
Did you know that, during prohibition, some individuals posed as members of the clergy to get their hands on alcohol? I didn’t either. WeirdWorm offers this and 9 other more dubious but entertaining facts about beer. [via Neatorama]
Speaking of odd beer facts, the 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco has busted out an idea for a watermelon-flavored wheat beer. Mental Floss reviews the fruity libation and even more bizarre food-and-drink-related items in its article “10 interesting edibles from the Fancy Food Show.”
Watermelon beer might not make it in the market, but you never know. The Chicago Tribune adds its own list to the mix, of “10 not-so-obvious dining trends for 2010.” Organic fast food? Doesn’t sound too bad to me. [via Food News Journal]
And ad freak airs my new top 3 favorite commercials about bacon. Check it out:
Last, but not least, the number one place in the world to go for chocolate is now in Beijing. A new exhibit, Chocolate Wonderland, features 80 tons of sculpted chocolate, including a chocolate model of The Great Wall of China, and an enormous BMW. The BBC has the sweet scoop.
Fossil Fuels XPort by Steve Kocino on Flickr
In 1995 scientists Raul J. Cano and Monica K. Borucki uncovered endospores from a bacteria related to Bacillus sphaericus, a fungal bacteria, in the stomach of a bee. Endospores are dormant spores, surrounded by a thick protein wall, and created by bacteria in response to environmental stress. In this dormant, dehydrated state, Bacillus endospores can withstand heat, radiation, chemical agents, and pressure.
The cool thing was that the bee was a Proplebeia Dominicana, a form of extinct, stingless bee , and it and the bacteria were fossilized in 20 to 45 million year old amber. And, somewhat surprisingly, some bacterial endospores were more or less intact. According to Cano and Borucki, “In the state of dessication some bacteria may remain in a cryptobiotic state for millions of years.” To extract the Bacillus, the researchers first chemically sterilized the amber surfaces to eliminate extant bacteria. After placing the resin in liquid nitrogen, they cracked the amber shell under a sealed hood to retrieve the bee’s stomach contents.
But what they did next was really, really cool: they were able to revive the ancient spores. After bacteria was spread on petri dishes, fed, and incubated, it began to colonize. An ancient organism had been brought back to life! (or so it seems). Cano and Borucki’s findings astonished them and raised surprise and skepticism throughout the scientific community. Their results were published in Science.
But the story didn’t end there. Over the next months, Cano revived more specimens using the same method. One particular find was a bacteria related to Saccharomyces, a genus that contains brewer’s or baker’s yeast. Just for fun, Cano and Chip Lambert, Cano’s partner at the Ambergene company, used the Saccharomyces to brew up a batch of Eocene epoch beer to serve at Cano’s daughter’s wedding. The verdict? not a bad flavor, and not bad for a couple of amateurs.
It wasn’t until 2006 that they decided to take their ancient brew commercial. In 2006, Cano and Lambert teamed up with Stumpton and Kelley Brothers Brewing Companies to create Fossil Fuels Beer with their prehistoric yeast. The beverage was launched in 2008. So far, the beer is available for consumption only at these two breweries, but Fossil Fuels is slated for distribution soon.
So when can you have your own taste of pre-history? Keep up with the Fossil Fuels website to find out!
[via Wired] [for another take, check out Time Magazine] OR
Cano, R., & Borucki, M. (1995). Revival and identification of bacterial spores in 25- to 40-million-year-old Dominican amber Science, 268 (5213), 1060-1064 DOI: 10.1126/science.7538699
