Unlike most other beer brands, Coors has refused to stay in its own lane.
Over the past few years, the brewery has successfully expanded into whiskey. Aside from its acquisition of Blue Run Spirits, Coors also now distills its own dram.
Its inaugural offerings, the affordable Barmen 1873 bourbon and Five Trail blended whiskey, have both taken home their fair share of awards. But now, for the first time, the iconic Colorado-based staple releases a whiskey under the Coors name.
The common thread
Malting has been a fundamental part of beer production from the beginning. Beer is essentially built on converted grain starch, and malting is what makes that conversion possible. It’s the process of steeping grain, allowing it to sprout and then drying it in a kiln to preserve the enzymes.
In fact, malting in whiskey is done the same way, except you add distillation and aging afterwards to create the spirit. Coors’s history as a maltster has helped it smoothly cross over to the whiskey category, to the point where its liquor has been more critically acclaimed than its own flagship beer.
