A Golden day

Had a great visit with in-laws Leah and Kyle. I must say the highlight was a trip to Golden, Colo., home of Coors. Now, I have never been a fan of Coors (especially Coors Light) and have never hesitated to say so, but after visiting the brewery, I have to admit I'm a bit of a convert. I won't be rushing out to stock the fridge with Coors products, but getting a firsthand look has given me a new appreciation.

Golden is a picturesque Wild West town nestled in the mountains (that's Leah in the middle photo with a true Western backdrop). The Coors sign looms over the land, and the brewery takes up 5.5 miles, as we were told by our trusty tour guide, Jeff O. (Kyle insisted he was more of a Justin.)

The tour starts on a bus and includes a quick spin through the heart of town (that's the main strip in the bottom photo) before you return to the brewery. The smell of hops and barley smack you in the face immediately upon entering. You're put in a circle with other free-beer seekers; then you get carded, stamped with a "21" and slapped with a wristband.

This was only my second alcohol-manufacturing tour (went to Maker's Mark in Loretto, Ky., in May), and parts weren't quite as interesting as the bourbon tour -- where you get to stick your finger in a gigantic vat of mash that looks like oatmeal. We also were a bit disappointed with the final portion of the tour -- a view from above and behind glass of the packaging room. There's no bottle-down-the-conveyer-waiting-to-be-capped a la "Laverne & Shirley"; pretty much all we saw were Keystone cans being packaged into 12-packs.

The initial highlight of the tour is a stop in the "Fresh Tasting Room" (see first photo), where you can mosey up to the bar for a sample of Coors or Coors Light and sit on plastic "ice blocks" to enjoy them. The ultimate highlight is a stop in the lounge for three free full-size samples. I think we all liked the Winterfest best; there were also samples of Blue Moon, Zima, regular and light versions of Coors and the untasty nonalcoholic Coors. Me? I had a frozen black cherry Zima smoothie -- like an Icee with a kick!

We finished off our evening with a stop in Boulder (actual home of "Mork & Mindy," though I haven't sought out the house yet; sadly there's no Mork statue in town that we know of) for pizza and more beer, and returned home for Trivial Pursuit 90s edition, where Michael started out pieless, then clawed his way back to victory. His winning question (paraphrased)? "What Western city's state-of-the-art airport suffered setbacks over its faulty baggage-handling system?" Answer: Denver!