Coors Brewing Company
Encyclopedia : C : CO : COO : Coors Brewing Company
|-
|Location
|Golden, Colorado
United States
|- |Owner |Molson Coors Brewing Company
|- |Year opened |1873
|- |Annual production |$5 billion U.S. in sales
|- !style="background:#ECC850; font-size: 120%" align="center" colspan=2| Beers |- style="font-size: 90%;" |Coors Original |Pale lager
|- style="font-size: 90%;" |Coors Light |Light pale lager
|- style="font-size: 90%;" |Coors Extra Gold |Light pale lager
|- style="font-size: 90%;" |Keystone |Pale lager
|- style="font-size: 90%;" |Keystone Light |Light pale lager
|- style="font-size: 90%;" |Keystone Ice |Pale lager
|- style="font-size: 90%;" |Aspen Edge |Pale lager
|- style="font-size: 90%;" |Killian's Irish Red |Pale lager
|- style="font-size: 90%;" |Blue Moon |Belgian Wheat
|- |align=center colspan=2| |} 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, [link] 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.
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
- Zima
- Aspen Edge
- Winterfest (Seasonal)
- 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
- 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
- Adolph Coors
- William K. Coors
Sponsorships
Coors Light was the official sponsor of the 2006 NFL Draft.
See also
Reference
- The Coors Story at [coors.com]. (requires age over 21 assertion to view)
External links
- [Coors Brewing Company] (USA).
- [Coors Brewers Limited] (UK).
- [RateBeer]
- [}}}] at NNDB.
- ["Coors & Affirmative Action"].
- [Keystone Light]
- [Coors Case Studies] at Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College.
- [Coors Fine Light Beer]
- [Summary of a book about the conservative activism of the Coors family]
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