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This Saturday we’ll be attending the third annual Savor craft beer event at the Building Museum. At the first Savor event three years ago there were probably still some people who thought the craft beer movement was just a fad; but surely even the most doubtful can see the writing on the wall. When you can walk into three different liquor stores in PQ and find a craft beer local to Hawaii, but not a single Coors banquet beer, something is happening. Seemingly every city has their own craft breweries these days, a movement we fully support. Not all the beers are good, of course, but it adds a little something to every vacation to not only eat local foods but to drink local beers.
Craft beers will get their due at Savor this weekend though, so we thought an appreciation of mass-produced beers was in order.
Appreciation may be too strong of a word, actually. You see we’re not beer snobs, we don’t think all of the beers offered by the Buds, Millers, or Coors of the world are bad. Just like the microbrews, some of the mass produced beers are terrible, some are merely ok, and some are great. Sitting in the sun at a baseball game or on the beach we’ll always reach for a Miller Lite over a local IPA (although at $8 a pop we might not drink anything). And while this may not be a popular opinion with the Savor crowd, we really like Miller High Life and Coors (Banquet, not the Silver Bullet) for any occasion. While our fridge may be stocked most often with microbrews like the afore mentioned Kona brewing company’s Wailua Wheat, Dogfish Head, or Troegs, we sometimes get a craving for one of the larger breweries offerings.
In fact if we have any complaint about the mass-market beers, it’s that sometimes they’re too hard to find in our area. A recent trip to Vail, Colorado made us crave a few of Coors finest, the banquet beer (we’ve also been itching to watch Smokey and the Bandit again). While in Colorado we thought we’d have a few (or more) Coors and that itch would be scratched. But Colorado, or Vail at least, had other plans. We had any number of Colorado microbrews to choose from, and Coors Light was on tap at every bar. But regular Coors? The stuff Burt & gang were hauling from Texas to Georgia? Nowhere to be found.
Our Vail trip was only a long weekend so we suffered through it with a variety of local brews, but our thirst for the banquet beer was never quenched. No big deal, we thought, we’ll pick up a six pack in PQ and all will be well. PQ, like Vail, had other plans for us as well. We mentioned above that we tried three different PQ liquor stores and each of them had a lot of microbrews, a decent amount of Bud, Miller, and Coors Light, but none had the original Coors beer. Perhaps you’ve heard that we have a Safeway in our neighborhood now? Well it’s a Safeway without the banquet beer.
We even tried a few bars, although admittedly probably not the ones likely to carry a large selection of mass-market beers. At Central last week we asked the bartender if they carried Coors. He shot us a “what are you crazy?” look, even as he poured a Budweiser into a glass for a customer. While some in PQ might turn their nose up at Budweiser, Miller, or Coors, those beers will always have a place in our fridge.
They might just be behind the Wailua Wheat.
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Comments
While I understand where you’re coming from with craving a particular beer and the disappointment of not finding it. The beers you drink to try to replicated it, will always taste bad since they just remind you of what you could be having. But I’m personally not a huge fan of the mass market breweries I’m more of a strong beer kind of guy, huge fan of Stone, but also I haven’t had a regular Coors in a while since, as you said, all they really carry most places is Coors Lite. Have fun at Savor this weekend, a bit jealous not gonna lie and if you get a chance try Stone’s Cali-Belgique IPA, it’s one of my favorites.
Yuengling is my Coors. they have both kinds at the CityVista Safeway…”regular” and Black & Tan (didn’t see the lite anywhere in the photo).
I’m not a huge Coors fan (has to do with the old anti-semetic family), but I did know the back way into the old factory tasting room so I could skip the lame tour and get right down to business. Was always a fun stop when in the Denver area.
There is something seriously wrong with Safeway when their price for a 6 pack of Budweiser American Ale is more expensive than the corner liquor store’s regular price at 12th and E. Ditto when they have a 30% off all wines sale, and those prices were still higher than prices at places like MacArthur Beverages and Costco. These guys and Giant refused to improve their DC stores until other grocers moved into the city. Now those other grocers like Trader Joe’s and Whole foods are able to provide a staff that is both good at their jobs, customer service and doesn’t act like they don’t want to be there (unlike much of the Safeway staff). At this point I have trouble knowingly over paying for average product and bad service. They lost me, and they don’t seem to be on the verge of changing that anytime soon.
For the East Coast, Kona is brewed by contract in Portsmouth, N.H., and distributed locally by Capital Eagle. Alaskan Brewing limits its distribution to the western states.
with all due respect, Stella is usually rated as one of the worst beers in the world, Germans refer to it as EuroBud.
Thundarr is correct, for the East Coast Kona is brewed at the Redhook facilities in NH.
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You’re in Colorado, one of the finest beer states in the Union–home to Odell, New Belgium, Avery, Oskar Blues, Great Divide, Left Hand, Ska, and Ft Collins Brewing Company, among others–and you’re searching everywhere for an original Coors? I’m sorry, maybe you should have checked 1978. Craving a Coors in Colorado is like using a dial-up modem–sure, it’s quaint and nostalgic, but it doesn’t mean that the experience is worthwhile compared to your other options.