September 26, 2024 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Coors Banquet is really good...no, really good, and its story began with a German immigrant living in a Colorado mining town. Pete Coors tells the story.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we returned to our American stories, and up next
a story from Pete Coors on Adolph Coors. Take it away, Pete.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, So, Adolph was born somewhere in the eighteen forties
in a little place called barmannon Buppertal in Germany, and
kind of an interesting story. People say the Cors name
is kind of unusual for a German name. His birth
(00:46):
certificate he was signed in his course krs, which is
very German, and his father actually signed kohrs. And by
the time his sister was born about eight or ten
years later as a Dutch magistrate who brought the double
O from their language and it became steal or. As
(01:09):
his father was a flower miller, died when he was ten.
He had been a princess three times in order to survive,
once as a flower miller with his father's trade, once
as a printer bookbinder. And those are three years in
denture ships, which as I understand in those days, that
(01:29):
meant you got room and board, and that's about it.
And then the third one in brewingt We don't know
the details of how or why he decided to leave Germany.
He was always very proud of his German heritage. But
he stowed away on a ship, landed in Baltimore, had
no papers, had no money, was able to work off
(01:51):
his passage. As soon as he did, he started working
his way across the country. And I guess it's a
you know, a typical Great American story of coming to
a land of opportunity and freedom but with no safety nets.
I mean, he came here, you were on your own,
as so many pioneers did after this country became free
(02:12):
from the monarchial rule of England. And he worked on
the Erie barche Canal, as we understand, and he worked
at a brewery in Naperville, Illinois, the Stanger Brewery, became
general manager of the brewery there. Left, came further west,
ended up in Denver, started business importing cask wine from
(02:34):
California and taking it by pack horse up to the
mining towns between Idaho Springs, Georgetown, Central City, Blackhawk, selling them.
And that's how he made a living. And then I
guess some of his German friends and Denver said, well,
you know how to brew beer, we could use a
good brewery. Showed up with a financial partner. Think he
(02:58):
invested about ten thousand dollars in eleven acres in Golden, Colorado,
where he had found a source of spring water. The
brewery was incorporated in eighteen seventy three, three years before
Colorado statehood. His partner lasted about eight years and decided
the beer business wasn't going anywhere, and Adolph turned into
(03:20):
a sole proprietorship. And he really had no formal education,
but he had a practical education. And I think that
was probably true for most immigrants at that time. They
came with their skills, with their ability to do hard labor,
and it wasn't easy. I'm sure it wasn't easy. And
as I look at some of the pictures that we
(03:41):
have in the archives of the brewery workers sitting around
the tanks and the CAGs, it's pretty obvious that they
were a pretty rough crew. You know. He struggled, but
the business was growing. In those days. There were over
twenty breweries in Colorado, most of the mining towns and
their own breweries. We would equate the craft breweries today
(04:04):
boutique breweries. If you hike throughout Colorado and pay attention
a lot of these old abandoned mining towns and mining areas,
you'll find hops growing hops, growing wild and he literally
started by hauling beer by back horse, and then he
began to buy properties, and pre prohibition, the sold beer
(04:28):
by like craft berries doing today by having saloons and bars.
We have a listing. Actually nineteen I think the first
year of taxes were nineteen fifteen, and he did a
full accounting of all his properties in Denver and in
southern Colorado and around the region. Prohibition changed all that
(04:50):
and brewers could no longer own the retail liquor saloons
and bars. Another interesting story about eight holl He needed
to double the capacity of his brewery cause they were
doing quite well and growing. And I believe it was
eighteen eighty four, I don't can't remember for sure the
date he had just completed the new facilities. Uh flood
(05:14):
came down Clear Creek and wiped out his new brewery.
And he had borrowed money from the banks in Denver
to build that. And of course beer sales primarily grow
in the summertime, and so here is brewery in the
spring has wiped out all of his inventory. Went back
to the banks and said, look, uh, if you'll double down,
(05:36):
I'll rebuild and I'll pay it off, and he did,
but he never borrowed another dime. He decided that, uh,
that was not a good way to proceed. So really
the company didn't ever borrow money until about the late
eighteen eighties. We'd been growing and we needed the additional
capital to to expand the brewery. So people often as
(05:59):
ask why the world in the sixties and seventies, when
the company was growing so fast, were you only in
eleven states? And the simple answer is we were. Every
dime that we had was invested back into the company.
Because we had no debt, we couldn't borrow money to
grow any faster. So that's in the mid seventies when
(06:21):
competition from the east, particularly on Halser Bush, came more west,
we began to expand our territory. And people used to
say it had something to do with quality, and to
a certain degree it did. In eleven States, we could
have pretty good control of quality. But the real reason
is we needed in order to become a competitor with
(06:42):
the big guys and keep them from bearing us, we
expanded territory. The rest I guess, as if they say,
is history. A couple of funny stories after Prohibition back
in those days, a banquet was a big d You
didn't have fast foods, restaurants, you didn't have people on there,
(07:05):
you know, going out to clubs, and I mean if
you had a banquet, that was a big deal. And
my grandfather that to the we had no marketing department
per se in those days, said well I think we are.
Well this is this is a beer that's good enough
for a banquet. And so that's where a banquet came from.
(07:27):
And the other another funny story. You know, now we
have the Core's banquet has the stubby bottles and it's
a it's a retro. It goes back to the early
days after prohibition when we had stubby bottles. And I
asked my uncle one time. I don't know if this
is a true story, And I asked my uncle one time,
why did we why do we go to long Next?
(07:47):
He said, well, he said, the cowboys when they go
dancing would like to would put their bottles in the
back pocket. Who I could dance and the beer would
slush out. And so that's why a Longns guy started. Yeah.
I don't know if that's true, accurate or not, but
that's why everybody went. Everybody went to long necks and stuffy.
(08:10):
Everybody had pretty much had stubbies back in the early
days after provision. So now we've gone back to the
I guess they put their beers down when they go dance.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
I don't know, but anyway, and special thanks to Monty
and to Alex for the storytelling and putting that story
together so beautifully. And a special thanks to Pete Cores
and what a story he had to tell about Adolph Coors.
Born in Germany, he became an apprentice and even talked
(08:40):
about indenture ships. This is back when young people would
work for room and board, and that was it. And
my goodness, by eighteen seventy three, having come to America,
moved all the way out to the west and learned
not by formal education but by practical education, that is experience.
Forge informed a company that was incorporated in eighteen seventy three,
(09:02):
three years before Colorado was even a state, and all
these years later, this family business, well it's still a
family business. And that doesn't happen often. The story of
Adolph Cores and Corer's Brewing Company, as told by Pete
Cores here on our American Story
And we returned to our American stories, and up next
a story from Pete Coors on Adolph Coors. Take it away, Pete.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, So, Adolph was born somewhere in the eighteen forties
in a little place called barmannon Buppertal in Germany, and
kind of an interesting story. People say the Cors name
is kind of unusual for a German name. His birth
(00:46):
certificate he was signed in his course krs, which is
very German, and his father actually signed kohrs. And by
the time his sister was born about eight or ten
years later as a Dutch magistrate who brought the double
O from their language and it became steal or. As
(01:09):
his father was a flower miller, died when he was ten.
He had been a princess three times in order to survive,
once as a flower miller with his father's trade, once
as a printer bookbinder. And those are three years in
denture ships, which as I understand in those days, that
(01:29):
meant you got room and board, and that's about it.
And then the third one in brewingt We don't know
the details of how or why he decided to leave Germany.
He was always very proud of his German heritage. But
he stowed away on a ship, landed in Baltimore, had
no papers, had no money, was able to work off
(01:51):
his passage. As soon as he did, he started working
his way across the country. And I guess it's a
you know, a typical Great American story of coming to
a land of opportunity and freedom but with no safety nets.
I mean, he came here, you were on your own,
as so many pioneers did after this country became free
(02:12):
from the monarchial rule of England. And he worked on
the Erie barche Canal, as we understand, and he worked
at a brewery in Naperville, Illinois, the Stanger Brewery, became
general manager of the brewery there. Left, came further west,
ended up in Denver, started business importing cask wine from
(02:34):
California and taking it by pack horse up to the
mining towns between Idaho Springs, Georgetown, Central City, Blackhawk, selling them.
And that's how he made a living. And then I
guess some of his German friends and Denver said, well,
you know how to brew beer, we could use a
good brewery. Showed up with a financial partner. Think he
(02:58):
invested about ten thousand dollars in eleven acres in Golden, Colorado,
where he had found a source of spring water. The
brewery was incorporated in eighteen seventy three, three years before
Colorado statehood. His partner lasted about eight years and decided
the beer business wasn't going anywhere, and Adolph turned into
(03:20):
a sole proprietorship. And he really had no formal education,
but he had a practical education. And I think that
was probably true for most immigrants at that time. They
came with their skills, with their ability to do hard labor,
and it wasn't easy. I'm sure it wasn't easy. And
as I look at some of the pictures that we
(03:41):
have in the archives of the brewery workers sitting around
the tanks and the CAGs, it's pretty obvious that they
were a pretty rough crew. You know. He struggled, but
the business was growing. In those days. There were over
twenty breweries in Colorado, most of the mining towns and
their own breweries. We would equate the craft breweries today
(04:04):
boutique breweries. If you hike throughout Colorado and pay attention
a lot of these old abandoned mining towns and mining areas,
you'll find hops growing hops, growing wild and he literally
started by hauling beer by back horse, and then he
began to buy properties, and pre prohibition, the sold beer
(04:28):
by like craft berries doing today by having saloons and bars.
We have a listing. Actually nineteen I think the first
year of taxes were nineteen fifteen, and he did a
full accounting of all his properties in Denver and in
southern Colorado and around the region. Prohibition changed all that
(04:50):
and brewers could no longer own the retail liquor saloons
and bars. Another interesting story about eight holl He needed
to double the capacity of his brewery cause they were
doing quite well and growing. And I believe it was
eighteen eighty four, I don't can't remember for sure the
date he had just completed the new facilities. Uh flood
(05:14):
came down Clear Creek and wiped out his new brewery.
And he had borrowed money from the banks in Denver
to build that. And of course beer sales primarily grow
in the summertime, and so here is brewery in the
spring has wiped out all of his inventory. Went back
to the banks and said, look, uh, if you'll double down,
(05:36):
I'll rebuild and I'll pay it off, and he did,
but he never borrowed another dime. He decided that, uh,
that was not a good way to proceed. So really
the company didn't ever borrow money until about the late
eighteen eighties. We'd been growing and we needed the additional
capital to to expand the brewery. So people often as
(05:59):
ask why the world in the sixties and seventies, when
the company was growing so fast, were you only in
eleven states? And the simple answer is we were. Every
dime that we had was invested back into the company.
Because we had no debt, we couldn't borrow money to
grow any faster. So that's in the mid seventies when
(06:21):
competition from the east, particularly on Halser Bush, came more west,
we began to expand our territory. And people used to
say it had something to do with quality, and to
a certain degree it did. In eleven States, we could
have pretty good control of quality. But the real reason
is we needed in order to become a competitor with
(06:42):
the big guys and keep them from bearing us, we
expanded territory. The rest I guess, as if they say,
is history. A couple of funny stories after Prohibition back
in those days, a banquet was a big d You
didn't have fast foods, restaurants, you didn't have people on there,
(07:05):
you know, going out to clubs, and I mean if
you had a banquet, that was a big deal. And
my grandfather that to the we had no marketing department
per se in those days, said well I think we are.
Well this is this is a beer that's good enough
for a banquet. And so that's where a banquet came from.
(07:27):
And the other another funny story. You know, now we
have the Core's banquet has the stubby bottles and it's
a it's a retro. It goes back to the early
days after prohibition when we had stubby bottles. And I
asked my uncle one time. I don't know if this
is a true story, And I asked my uncle one time,
why did we why do we go to long Next?
(07:47):
He said, well, he said, the cowboys when they go
dancing would like to would put their bottles in the
back pocket. Who I could dance and the beer would
slush out. And so that's why a Longns guy started. Yeah.
I don't know if that's true, accurate or not, but
that's why everybody went. Everybody went to long necks and stuffy.
(08:10):
Everybody had pretty much had stubbies back in the early
days after provision. So now we've gone back to the
I guess they put their beers down when they go dance.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
I don't know, but anyway, and special thanks to Monty
and to Alex for the storytelling and putting that story
together so beautifully. And a special thanks to Pete Cores
and what a story he had to tell about Adolph Coors.
Born in Germany, he became an apprentice and even talked
(08:40):
about indenture ships. This is back when young people would
work for room and board, and that was it. And
my goodness, by eighteen seventy three, having come to America,
moved all the way out to the west and learned
not by formal education but by practical education, that is experience.
Forge informed a company that was incorporated in eighteen seventy three,
(09:02):
three years before Colorado was even a state, and all
these years later, this family business, well it's still a
family business. And that doesn't happen often. The story of
Adolph Cores and Corer's Brewing Company, as told by Pete
Cores here on our American Story
Host
Lee Habeeb
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com