I love stories about clever people

[Roger Feeley]

This came from a microbiologist down the street:
When she was in college in Colorado, students there wanted to brew Coors-like beer. So they wrote a letter to Coors requesting a sample of their yeast. Coors very politely replied with a letter explaining that the yeast was proprietary and ….. That was expected by the students because the reply was contaminated with Coors yeast. The clever students isolated the yeast, cultured it and brewed their beer.

[Prashun Patel]

Urban legend, I suspect. I doubt the brew master was the one responding to the letters.

Also, how clever can they be if they want to brew Coors-like beer?

[Edward Weber]

Urban legend, I suspect. I doubt the brew master was the one responding to the letters.

Also, how clever can they be if they want to brew Coors-like beer?

Thanks for the laugh :D

[Patrick McCarthy]

and Prashun in for the WIN! LMAO, Well played, sir.

[Paul F Franklin]

Urban legend, I suspect. I doubt the brew master was the one responding to the letters.

Also, how clever can they be if they want to brew Coors-like beer?

Oh, I suspect anyone and anything near the brewery would have enough yeast on it to culture if you had a mind to....

Back when I was an undergrad in college, Coors beer was not available in the Eastern part of the country, and the guys from the west kept talking about how great it was. So we chipped in money and next time one of the guys from Colorado went home for break, he came back with a keg or two of Coors. It was not well received. Granted, we drank it all, and it was marginally better than the 3.2 swill we could legally buy at the local dives, but there were no more claims about how great it was, that's for sure.

[Alan Rutherford]

I had lunch with a guy a while back whose hobby was brewing beer. He told me he collected yeast by taking the tour of whichever brewery he was interested in and wiping a tissue on the floor.

And FWIW I sampled a neighbor's home-brew the other day and it might have been the best beer I ever had. No stolen technology but years of experience in choosing ingredients and brewing beer.

[Edward Weber]

Oh, I suspect anyone and anything near the brewery would have enough yeast on it to culture if you had a mind to....

Back when I was an undergrad in college, Coors beer was not available in the Eastern part of the country, and the guys from the west kept talking about how great it was. So we chipped in money and next time one of the guys from Colorado went home for break, he came back with a keg or two of Coors. It was not well received. Granted, we drank it all, and it was marginally better than the 3.2 swill we could legally buy at the local dives, but there were no more claims about how great it was, that's for sure.
The entire "plot" of Smokey and the Bandit, I never understood :rolleyes:

[Pat Germain]

I've lived in Colorado for over 20 years and I don't know a single person who drinks Coors. We have many outstanding craft beers in Colorado. Why would anyone drink Coors?

Obviously, somebody must be drinking it. I doubt Johnny Lawrence is keeping Coors in business all by himself.

[Alan Rutherford]

When I first became aware of Coors, a lot more than 20 years ago, it was the closest thing there was to a craft beer, compared to the 3 or 4 beers widely available at the time. Not that anybody knew what a craft beer was. Things are a lot different now.

[Patty Hann]

Urban legend, I suspect. I doubt the brew master was the one responding to the letters.

Also, how clever can they be if they want to brew Coors-like beer?

Colorado Kool-Aid

[glenn bradley]

and Prashun in for the WIN! LMAO, Well played, sir.

Amen. Couldn't have done it better ;-)

[Warren Lake]

American beer I had past was water, canadian big names better but no hell. Neighbour asked me over canadian beer not long ago, just not great. Another friend longest employee at that company.

Last had german beers with a friend visiting from Luxemberg. What a difference.

[Jim Koepke]

Coors Lite, "more like water than water."

Coors and Olympia were the two brands fighting for the beer flavored Kool-Aid market out here in the west. Fortunately those of us in the San Francisco area had one of the original craft beers, Anchor Steam and later Anchor Porter. Sadly with the opening of brew pubs and then craft brewers Anchor kind of lost out.

517245


Unfortunately for Anchor brewing, impacts of the pandemic, inflation, especially in San Francisco, and a highly competitive market left the company with no option but to make this sad decision to cease operations.

There were a few lighter beers brewed in San Francisco; Hamms, Burgermeister, Acme and Lucky Lager come to mind.

Hamms was from the "Land of Sky Blue Waters." Sometimes on menus it would be listed as Hamms (LOSBW) I would often joke that meant Low On Suds But Watery.

jtk

[Bill Dufour]

San Francisco sourdough bread is all made south of the city not actually in the city. Many call it french bread but all the companies making it have Italian names.

The yeast is Fructilactobacillus sanfranciscensis.
Bill D

[Jim Koepke]

San Francisco sourdough bread is all made south of the city not actually in the city. Many call it french bread but all the companies making it have Italian names.

The yeast is Fructilactobacillus sanfranciscensis.
Bill D

Sadly one of the sour dough bakeries that used to be in the city limits had an insurance company that wasn't too good. The "accident" put them into bankruptcy.

jtk

[mike stenson]

Urban legend, I suspect. I doubt the brew master was the one responding to the letters.

Also, how clever can they be if they want to brew Coors-like beer?

Banquet is actually a decent lager.

[Roger Feeley]

Sonce we have veered off topic to beer reviews, I submit a story that is not urban legend because I was there. Full disclosure, I don’t drink and never have.

I was in college at Emporia State University in Emporia Kansas. The year would have been 1975 or 76. I worked as a draftsman in the architects office. Schlitz beer had made some sort of disastrous marketing error and tried to win back customers by sponsoring something called, “The Schlitz Movie Orgy”. They rented a very large multi purpose venue in the student union and invited anyone with a university student ID. No charge. There was some sort of mashup of movies like Reefer Madness and other bits and pieces. There were drawings for all sorts of Schlitz branded stuff. And unlimited beer.

it was my job the next day to assist with a damage report so Schlitz could make repairs. The wood floor was completely soaked with beer, vomit and other waste products. Two urinals were broken off the wall. Two doors were wrecked. And on and on. Schlitz happily paid the bill. I don’t think it got them many new customers. Everybody still called it “Chicken Schlitz.” I have no idea why the university didn’t shut it all down.

[Lee DeRaud]

Back when I was an undergrad in college, Coors beer was not available in the Eastern part of the country, and the guys from the west kept talking about how great it was.
1972 DU grad here. My take on the whole Coors mystique was always that it wasn't guys from the west talking it up, it was the eastern tourists. They'd drink a can or two on their first day at high altitude and get smashed out of their minds, then go home and tell mythic stories about it. But at the time, it was cheap, a major bonus for poor students.

(My dad always referred to Coors as being like sex in a canoe, because it was "f***ing near water".)

[Rod Sheridan]

Urban legend, I suspect. I doubt the brew master was the one responding to the letters.

Also, how clever can they be if they want to brew Coors-like beer?


Top marks Prashun, you made my day……Regards, Rod.