Why Coors has brewed in Golden since the 1870s

If you drive into Golden, the large brewery tucked between the mesas is hard to miss. It has been there a long time. In the early 1870s, a German immigrant named Adolph Coors was looking for a place to brew beer with clean, cold mountain water. He found it in Golden, on the banks of Clear Creek, at the site of an old tannery, and partnered with a fellow businessman to start the company.

That choice of location was not an accident. Good water mattered to brewing, and Clear Creek carried snowmelt straight out of the foothills. The brewery grew with the town, and it still operates on that same Golden ground today.

For someone moving to Golden, this history helps explain the place. The brewery has been part of the city’s identity for generations, and brewery traffic, tours, and the smell of cooking grain are part of daily life downtown. It is one reason Golden feels like a working town and not just a foothills suburb.

If you want the documented story rather than the marketing version, History Colorado covers Adolph Coors and the brewery’s early years. Start with History Colorado’s “Coors Country” feature.