BUFFALO BILL DAYS
Every July in Golden
Yee. Haw. Celebrate our western heritage with Golden’s biggest event.
FINE ARTS FESTIVAL
Every August in Golden
Sunset magazine ranks it one of the best fine arts festivals in the country. Bingo.
The Official Beer of the Gold Rush, Prohibition and the Great War.
The history of Coors dates back to 1868, when 26-year-old German brewing apprentice Adolph Coors stowed away on a ship traveling across the Atlantic with the ambition of brewing his own beer. Coors trekked across prairies, through wilderness, and into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in search of a superior water supply that is still the basis for brewing a great beer. He found it in Golden, Colorado, where springs near Clear Creek bubbled up with cold, crisp water from the snow-capped Rocky Mountains.
In 1873, Adolf partnered with Jacob Schueler and the two men produced their first barrel of Schueler-Coors beer. In 1880, Coors bought out his partner and by 1893, the company’s beer was honored at the Chicago World’s Fair. In 1916, the Prohibition came to Colorado three years before the rest of the country, and the company had to halt its beer production. It survived those years by focusing on its successful porcelain business and producing malted milk and near beer. With the end of Prohibition in 1933, the company resumed its beer production and by 1936 the company had added Banquet to its name to honor its heritage as the beer of choice for Colorado miners of the 1800’s when they threw parties they called “banquets.” By 1939, Coors was distributing in 10 Western states. When the war broke out in 1941, Coors had to receive permission from the government to buy supplies. Its request was approved under one condition: half of the beer it produced had to be reserved for the military. As they returned from overseas, the troops created such a demand for Coors, availability became scarce, and a mystique was born.
Crossing the Mississippi, Invading Indiana, and flying on Air Force One.
In 1959, Coors scrapped the traditional steel beer can and the negative effects it had on taste, introducing the beer industry’s first all-aluminum can, and sparking a revolution in recycling.
By the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, Coors’ distribution was still limited to Western states and its cult status exploded. Road trips to Colorado to fill up one’s car trunk with Coors became commonplace. In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford even loaded Air Force One with cases of Coors to take back to Washington.
In 1981, distribution of Coors finally crossed the Mississippi, and the company expanded rapidly. By 1990, Coors had grown into the third-largest brewer in America, and in 1991, Indiana welcomed Coors within its borders, becoming the last remaining state to be added to Coors distribution list. Today, more than 135 years since its opening, Coors Brewery in Golden, Colorado still stands as the largest single site brewery in the world.
