On the frightfully curvy mountainside in Golden sits the grave of Buffalo Bill Cody (Dude got around. We learned -not from a museum, but from a couple at the bar-that both Cody, WY and North Platte, NE battled over hosting Bill in their respective graveyards. So serious were they, Golden had to entomb Bill in concrete so that he couldn't be stolen and replanted. After having been to all three towns, I'd say he died in the wrong one. He should have held out for his namesake). The only other feature of interest in Golden (other than being the childhood home of Miles and Frankie) is Coors.
We were feeling thirsty not morbid, so you can guess which of the two attractions had motivated our drive to Golden.
Coors is the second biggest beer maker in the world, but as Golden is the company's headquarters and only production site, it makes for the planet's largest brewery. Unlike New Belgium who prides itself on reducing its environmental impact, Coors openly brags about having the biggest footprint of any brewery in the world. A Coors bus drove us around historic Downtown Golden and then dropped us off at the doors of Coors.
Unfortunately the Coors factory is similar to it's beer, it hasn't been improved upon in years. (Hey, if it was good enough for Burt Reynolds, Paul Newman, and Gerald Ford..) The factory is huge but has chipped paint and old equipment (their monitoring lab looked like a 1960's space station). The self-guided tour allows you to set your own pace which for some means ditching their headsets and heading straight for the bar. We took our time and watched beer science cartoons and tolerated excruciating puns from our pre recorded tour guide.
The story of Coors was more interesting than the shabby visuals.
-Bill Coors, grandson of the creator Adolph Coors, invented the two-piece aluminum can. Prior to that beer had been served in a tin can which left an unpleasant tin can taste.
-They were also the first to offer a reward for recycling in 1959, one penny per can.
-In 1916 when prohibition began they were able to keep the factory going by making malt milkshakes.
-Their bottling line is currently able to produce anywhere from 1,100 to 1,800 bottles per minute when running at full capacity. This is slower than Budweiser but only by a couple hundred cans.
The best part of the tour was of course the end. Not that it was so bad we were eager for it to end, but that the end meant samples. You had your choice of three alcoholic drinks and unlimited soda. The options were limited but thankfully extended beyond just Coors or Coors Light (aka banquet or bullet).
What's beer without pizza? In a customer appreciation promotion Cici's pizza was offering a $2.99 pizza buffet and though we had previously never heard of Cici's, much less visited them, we accepted their thank yous and appreciated, between the two of us, several pizzas, including macaroni and hot wing pizzas.
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