120. Coors Brewery

            I like beer. I never liked it when I was younger because all the American beers were things like Budweiser, Hamms, Rainier and Coors—lagers and pilsners or lighter German style beers. This, along with my rather tea totaling ideology, lead me away from being a drinker at all. Then in my twenties I went abroad to England to study at Oxford. There was no shadow of Prohibition there and the pub culture is very inviting and not the typical dark and sleazy bar culture that I found to be prevalent in 1980’s America. So, I took to it and began to enjoy the darker British ales.

            Upon my return to the US I found, in my native Northwest, a new micro-brewery culture that encouraged me because I found British style ales. That’s still my favorite beer and now those beers are pretty much available at any grocery or convenience store. That change has been subtle and gradual over the last forty years.

            So having said all that about my tastes in beer, what I’m about to say might seem odd. One of my favorite breweries to visit is the Coors brewery in Golden, Colorado. No, I’m not a fan of Coors Banquet Beer but I do enjoy getting a tour and some free samples. They also brew other beers like Blue Moon so I’ve found that at the Coors brewery I am still able to find a beer to my taste. And, let’s face it, with a few free eight-ounce samples I’m going to find a beer I like. Since I haven’t been to Golden for a couple of years I can’t recall just which beer I liked. And since I’m writing this in January and I was there in July I might not really care for that favorite I chose then. That’s the great thing about American beer culture these days. It is continuing to offer new varieties. And these big breweries like Coors Miller Brewing are keeping up with that. Who would think that my dislike for pilsners and lagers would leave me to love that plant in Golden, Colorado? Let’s face it. As prudish as we Americans can get, we are a creative collective of people and we work to overcome our faults like the hard core crackdown on alcohol that we made a century ago. We also might struggle with finding middle ground, but if you just taste the variety and creativity of American life you might find pleasure even in a macro-brewery.