Today we met our friends Bob and Michelle in Golden, CO for the Coors Brewery Tour. Way back in 2015 we went to St. Louis, MO for The 4th of July. At that time Bob and Michelle were living in the area so we went to The Budweiser Brewery Tour together and enjoyed it so much that we thought we would visit Coors while they are living in the area here.
The facility is HUGE and the town of Golden is pretty small so they shuttle you from a large parking lot on the edge of town behind the Brewery. Getting to the Brewery for the tour was a very organized and produced experience but once we were there it was a bit of a hot mess thanks to our seemingly scattered tour guide. If she was putting on a act she did it very well. Right as she told us to silence our phones her phone rang (was this for show?).
The facility is HUGE (I know I said that just above this but it had to be said again) and the tour takes about 45 minutes. You pass through rooms representing the process of making beer and our tour guide made sure we learned something in every room. I began getting work orientation flash backs but I was holding a watery beer while it all happened. During the tour we got three 10ish oz pours of a choice of beers. It feels like they are really trying to have a diverse range of beers but I think they want them to all appeal to Coors Light drinkers so they all taste like water. We do like light refreshing beers that taste like cereal but these weren't them. I do think they are succeeding in some areas because we had a bro in our group yell, "Best Beer In the World!" when our guide offered up Coors Light in the middle of the tour.
The canning room was the highlight. A giant V of Coors Light cans enters the top of a "funnel" and gets reduced down to 1 row over time. Donna and Michelle saw a can fall over and it quickly worked its way to the edge of the V and fell off and was sent back to the start to get aligned again.
The single line of cans then works its way to at least 2 different packing stations where 12 pack and 24 pack boxes get assembled as they are stuffed with cans and then sealed. She mentioned how many cans pass through in an hour and it was a big number but I can't remember what it was.
The last stop was the tasting room. You were able to choose your last pour from 8 taps. We all got the one beer we hadn't seen before, Batch 19 Pre-Prohibition Beer, and it was just as good as the other beers. After the tour we exited by the gift shop and then waited for shuttles to take us back to the parking lot. They need to work on their return shuttle system. The wait was longer than it should have been. I guess I will give them a break because they have only been around since 1873.
The Shuttle Waiting Area
Don't forget to buy our crap!
Our chariot awaits
Selfie
We had to cross a river to get to the brewery
They were shipping away spent grain. This is a zero landfill facility so I am sure it went to feeding cattle.
There was a pot still out front.
Dioramas Cha cha cha!
The "Colorado Native" line is their "craft" line
Our guide, probably in the middle of shushing someone trying to have fun
Our tour group
Representing Seattle Craft Beer
We took a number of group shots and all of us took turns recreating our Budweiser Tour Shot but in separate photos. Bob is doing his now.
Here is the Budweiser building in 2015
And our official tour photo
This area had 64 pot stills. Pot stills are like icebergs, you only see the top 20%
One person runs the stills from this control room
Coors Banquet is only brewed in Golden. They feel they need the fresh Golden Water to make it drinkable.
The Hall of Brands!
Behind the scenes of blogging
The canning line. You can see the wide stream of cans coming in on the left and reducing to a single row in the center.
This is the box making and filling section
Bill Coors holding a 6 pack in a very weird way.
Oh the 80s!
Lining up for our last sample
They were pouring fast
Donna and Michelle enjoying the tasting room. Donna pointed out that they just added hops to their plastic grapevines in the back.
80s Responsible Drinking Advertising
They gave us Aluminum cups that we could keep. We recycled ours.
Enjoying the moment
Their "Craft" line
Bob is learning to work with Neon so he is able to explain old signs with great detail.
Elvira Mistress of the Dark
Coors Merch we didn't buy
Zima! I had one friend that drank this on our Surf Trips
They had a collection of old memorabilia and collectibles
Bob and I got the memo on this one. :)
Crossing the river again to get to the shuttle
After the tour we walked downtown Golden for a while. It's a cute little town with a lot to do. We ended up at a brewery for dinner and then got some ice cream before the storm hit. It was a great afternoon.
The West lives here
The River was high due to all of the snow melt
One could rent innertubes and go tubing
We happened to catch the end of a 5 day bike race through The Rockies
We got our dinner snack here
The Tap List at Barrels & Bottles
Murals in Downtown Golden
Our Ice Cream stop
If you get a chance to visit Downtown Golden, do it! Parking is pretty inexpensive and it is a good place to kill 2 hours.
Here are some old Coors Commercials for your enjoyment.
I laughed out loud about how that dude is holding a 6-pack for a solid 10 seconds. So weird.
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