Colorado locavores looking for a local beer can choose among offerings from a wide variety of fabulous craft breweries. But last month, AC Golden introduced Colorado Native, a truly local lager made almost completely with ingredients from Colorado. By fall, it will be 100% Colorado-grown.
With a homebrewer in the family, we are gradually developing more and more complex and sophisticated (or, as some would say, “snobby”) tastes in beer. We don’t drink a lot of lager; Mr. Cheap loves the new super-hop beers, and we like a lot of Belgian brews. That said, however, I would buy Colorado Native — it has that refreshing lager quality, but it also brings a little broader-spectrum flavor to the table.
And Colorado Native’s exciting local features include:
- Water: From the Colorado mountains (OK, that’s pretty much where all the water in Colorado comes from. But keep reading!)
- Barley: Moravian two-row barley from the San Luis Valley in Southern Colorado
- Hops: Chinook, Centennial and Cascade hops from friends and family (and a fraction from out of state). It is anticipated that by this fall all the brew’s hops will be sourced in-state, allowing us to say that Colorado is made from 100% Colorado ingredients (versus our present 99.9% by weight)
- Yeast: From Golden
- Bottles: Made in Colorado
Is that cool or what?
Personally, I love the aspect of friends and family growing the hops in their backyards. I would love to know how many mini-hops-farmers are twining their way around the state. (We are among them — Mr. Cheap has a few hops plants in the backyard, and he’s hoping he’ll soon be able to harvest his own hops for his locavore-friendly, money-saving homebrew hobby.) However, to be sure they have an ongoing supply, the brewery also has a hops farm in Center, Colo., and is contracting with growers on Colorado’s Western Slope (that’s the west side of the Rocky Mountains for those of you in other parts of the world).
If you want to know how the beer is made, the website has a careful description and a picture of the lovely copper kettles used at the brewery. The company’s trying to do the right thing by local drinkers and will donate 25 cents per case of Colorado Native beer sold to local nonprofit organizations. (And unlike eating fried chicken, drinking beer in moderation ostensibly has some health benefits.)
If you want to try Colorado Native, check around at Colorado liquor stores and restaurants. If you’re not in Colorado — plan a visit, because it’s only sold here. And talk to your local breweries about doing a local beer!
See disclosure here.
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Comments ( 11 )
[...] Uncategorized wendyanneh 9:27 pm Excerpt of Cheap Like Me’s Blog (http://www.cheaplikemeblog.com/local/locavore-brew-colorado-native-beer-99-9-colorado-grown/): [...]
Coors’ New Local Brew, “Colorado Native” « DISCOVERING: Locavore Culture And Sustainability added these pithy words on Jun 22 10 at 9:27 pmooh thanks for the suggestion– hub will look for it the next time we do a beer run.
kimchi added these pithy words on
May 03 10 at
9:54 am
So… is this a Coors product? It is, right… but aside from being developed, brewed and bottled AT Coors, this isn’t just clever marketing. Please tell me it’s not. I’m so skeptical. If it tastes great, that’s awesome. I know the Coors bottling plant takes care of New Belgium and other craft beer companies mass-bottling/canning so is this the same kind of situation?
Angelique added these pithy words on
May 03 10 at
10:41 am
Ah… sorry, taking over your comments. The AC stands for Adolf Coors. It IS a subsidiary, but I’m still going to try the beer; better to support good beer made with local products than to buy kinda crappy mega-conglomerate beer.
Angelique added these pithy words on
May 03 10 at
10:48 am
Here’s how the press release describes AC Golden: “AC Golden Brewing Company, the maker of Colorado Native and Herman Joseph’s Private Reserve, is a brand incubation company whose purpose is to introduce new above-premium beers to the marketplace using an entrepreneurial approach.” So if that’s clear …
The PR person clarified that “AC Golden Brewing Company is a tiny brewery inside the MillerCoors big brewery. We brew in a 30-barrel kettle (vs. the 500bbl ones for MillerCoors).”
A barrel is 42 gallons, so even though it’s backed by the Coors group, it truly is small-scale brewing. Just for comparison’s sake, this article reports that Oskar Blues produced 29,000 barrels of beer last year. (I don’t know what size OB’s batches are … and no, I’m not implying that I will give up Dale’s Pale Ale this summer.)
Cheap Like Me added these pithy words on
May 03 10 at
11:02 am
D’oh… I meant “mega-conglomerate beer like COORS.” I’m too fast with the reply button. Sorry.
Angelique added these pithy words on
May 03 10 at
1:07 pm
OH if I read the other comments first I wouldn’t be making a fool of myself!
Rob added these pithy words on
May 03 10 at
6:44 pm
StradaTostada added these pithy words on Just to clarify, in the beer business, a barrel is 31 gallons—which is why a “half-barrel” is the name given to the big kegs at liquor stores. They hold 15.5 gallons. A “pony keg” is also called a quarter barrel and holds 7.75 gallons.
Although I’m not positive, I think a barrel of oil is 42 gallons (and we’re heard lots about those lately!), but beer is just 31.
Doyle Albee added these pithy words on
Jun 21 10 at
11:17 am
