Food for thought: Coors tour
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.
