In the July 2009 edition:
What's Brewing in Colorado?
By Pete Ensminger
Colorado has some really big breweries, Coors Brewing Company of Golden and Anheuser-Busch of Fort Collins. Coors grew even bigger in February of 2005, when it became a division of Molson Coors Brewing Company. Molson Coors produces more than 40 million barrels (1,240 million gallons) of beer per year, has about 10,000 employees, and is the fifth largest brewery in the world. Somewhat confusingly, SABMiller (South African Breweries-Miller) markets Coors beer in North America. Coors proudly proclaims that their Golden brewery is the world’s largest single-site brewery. They also claim the largest aluminum can-producing plant in the world, Rocky Mountain Metal Container.
Anheuser-Busch (brewers of Budweiser) has also gotten bigger. As of July of 2008, it is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, a Brazilian-Belgian brewing giant. It’s Fort Collins brewery is one of 12 American breweries. Anheuser-Busch also operates 16 overseas breweries, with 14 in China, one in the United Kingdom and one in India. Anheuser-Busch InBev produces about 300 brands and has about 120,000 employees. The Anheuser-Busch division produces almost 50% of all beer sold in the United States, more than 100 million barrels (31,000 million gallons). That’s a lot of beer!
There are also dozens of smaller Colorado breweries. In 1979, two Colorado University professors established Boulder Beer Company, Colorado’s first craft brewery. Its original beers – porter, stout, and pale ale – were produced in a one-barrel system (31 gallons) on a farm northeast of Boulder. Boulder Beer Company is now in downtown Boulder and has a 50-barrel system with an annual capacity of 43,000 barrels. Over time, their beers have become more eclectic and now include “Obovoid” (6.8% ABV), an oak-aged oatmeal stout, “Mojo Risin’” (10% ABV), an intensely hoppy double India pale ale, and “Killer Penguin” (10% ABV), a barley wine. Regarding this last beer, the brewery warns, “Be afraid of the Penguin, man!”. (subscribe for to our print edition for full content)
New Railroad to Colorado Central Country
By Forrest Whitman
Every time I stroll along the out-of-service Union Pacific (U.P.) tracks near Cleora I get nostalgic for passenger trains. Why can’t I board a train in Salida? I know my black lab Gus and his buddy Bodie would hate to have trains honking along their favorite stretch of track and Bodie might just chase trains. But we could leave the dogs home and board in Leadville. That’s not a fantasy. Your Colorado rail authority is about ready to decide on a rail route through the Rocky Mountains. Mainly that’s to take the pressure off I-70, but it will serve Colorado Central Country, too. I’m predicting that a decade from now we’ll be able to board a “medium high-speed” electric MagLev train. That passenger train will whisk folks from Golden to the ski resorts, Leadville, and Eagle County Airport.
As I sit through board meetings of the rail authority I sometimes doze a bit and time travel. I can’t help thinking of how closely the main proposed route through the Rockies follows the dreams, schemes, and sometimes the actual rails of our Colorado railroad pioneers. That route ought to be named the Loveland, Gould, Pomeroy and Palmer (L.G.P.&P.) – a fitting tribute to their visions. . (subscribe for to our print edition for full content)
