Coors Brewing Company

The Coors Brewing Company is a regional division of the world’s fifth-largest brewery companies, the Molson Coors Brewing Company. According to the Molson-Coors website, ^* the division is the third-largest brewer in the U.S. The brewery in Golden, Colorado is the world’s largest on a single site.

History

The Coors Brewing Company is the principal subsidiary of the Adolph Coors Company. In 1873, German immigrant Adolph Coors established a brewery in Golden, Colorado. His pale lager, nicknamed the "Banquet Beer" and now known as “Coors Original,” is said to take its flavor from the pure water of the Rocky Mountains. Coors’ company survived the prohibition era in America by diversifying into manufacture of other products including malted milk and ceramics. The Coors Ceramics business was later spun off as CoorsTek.

According to the Coors website, in 1959, Coors became the first American brewer to package beer in an all-aluminum two-piece beverage can.

For much of its history, Coors beer was a regional product mostly confined to the American west. The major reason is that Coors beer is not pasteurized, and thus shipments were limited to areas where the beer could remain refrigerated. This made it a novelty on the east coast, and visitors returning from visits to the western states often made a point of bringing back a case. This iconic status was reflected in pop culture: in 1977 the movie Smokey and the Bandit centered around an illegal shipment of Coors from Texas to Georgia. The company finally established nationwide distribution in the U.S. in the early 1990s.

In 2003, Coors was the third largest producer of beer in the United States, and the second largest brewer in the United Kingdom through its subsidiary, Coors Brewers Limited. There it controls the UK’s most popular brew, Carling.

On July 22, 2004 the company announced it would be merging with Canadian brewer Molson. The merger was completed February 9, 2005 and the merged company is called Molson Coors Brewing Company.

Through its owners and foundation, Coors also has played a prominent role in American politics and public policy, supporting many conservative causes, including The Heritage Foundation, one of the world’s most influential conservative public policy research institutes. Chairman Pete Coors ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate from Colorado in 2004 on the Republican ticket.

Labor Issues

Coors has a long history of labor strife that came to a head in the late 1970s with a nationwide boycott led by the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest union. A Federal Lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1975 ended in a settlement with the company agreeing not to discriminate against blacks, Mexican-Americans, and women.Ibid. By 1979, the boycott continued and the union was broken. Union at Coors May Be Broken But It Hasn't Halted Its Boycott, The New York Times, May 28, 1979, p. A7

Product lines

United States

Beers

Coors
- Coors Original, the "Banquet Beer"
- Coors Light, the "Silver Bullet" (introduced in 1978)
- Coors Extra Gold
Killian's
Blue Moon (wheat beer)
Keystone
Keystone Light is a pale 4.2% abv pale lager introduced in 1989. Packaged in "specially lined cans" intended to reduce metallic taste. The can is blue and silver and is narrower than a regular 12 ounce can of beer. An advertising campaign starring comedian Bob Marley claimed that Keystone Light relieved "Bitter Beer Face." The current advertising slogan is "Always Smooth, Never Bitter™."
Keystone Ice

Others

Discontinued

Zima Gold
Coors Red Light
Coors Extra Gold Light
Coors Dry (western US only, discontinued?)
Coors Arctic Ice
Coors Cutter (non-alcohol)

UK

Beers

Allbright
Arc
Breaker
Caffrey’s: (After Coors purchased Caffrey's from Interbrew, it ceased importation of the beer into the U.S. market. Coors decided that continued sale of Caffrey's in the U.S. market would interfere with branding of Killian's as Coors' premier Irish brew. Many Irish bars around the U.S. have Caffrey's paraphernalia but no longer can sell the beer. Coors' decision to sell Killian's over Caffrey's in the US market while removing the nitrogen charged Caffrey's allowed Diageo Guiness to gain marketshare with its Smithwick's brew in Irish bars throughout the U.S.).
Carling
Coors
Hancock’s
Lamot
M & B
Stones
Toby
Worthington

Others

Reef
Screamers
Java (discontinued in March 2004)

Business name

Schueler & Coors, Golden Brewery (1873-1880)
Adolph Coors, Golden Brewery (1880-1913)
Adolph Coors Co., Golden Brewery (1909-1913)
Adolph Coors Brewing and Malting Company, Golden Brewery (1913-1915)
Adolph Coors Company (1933-1989)
Coors Brewing Company (1989-2004)
Molson-Coors (2004-Present)

CEO

Sponsorships

Coors Light was the official sponsor of the 2006 NFL Draft.

Reference

The Coors Story at coors.com. (requires age over 21 assertion to view)

External links

1873 establishments | Colorado breweries | Companies based in Colorado