Tap Handle #1: Coors Light - Beer Wolf with Cap

As I mentioned in my first post, this is the tap that started it all for me. It's a smallish tap, about 6" tall. A "bierwolf" (beerwolf) is also known by its more common name of werewolf. Back in the 80's, Coors was looking to expand its market and settled on Halloween as an adult marketing idea with potential. With Coors already known as "The Silver Bullet" due to its can, everyone knows that silver bullets and werewolves go hand in hand. Thus the Beerwolf was born. He never sold much beer, and was retired in 1992. He was, however, highly marketable (like his competition Spuds MacKenzie), and all manner of toys, shirts, caps, and bar collectibles reflect the popular mascot. At the time that this tap was manufactured, many taps were plain, made of wood or lucite, with a company logo. The Beerwolf tap was truly ahead of its time.

Adolph Coors began as a 14 year old apprentice at the Henry Wenker Brewery in Dortmund, Germany, in 1861, but when his parents died at an early age,the apprenticeship became a means of survival. Adolph continued to work in the brewing industry until he was 21, when war and unrest in his country caused him to seek opportunity in America. Stowing away on a ship, Adolph arrived in the United States - probably New York - in 1868 with no money and no job. The young immigrant earned his living along the way as a bricklayer, stonecutter and laborer before hiring on as the foreman at the Stenger Brewery in Naperville, Illinois, in late 1869. After a two and one half year stay, he continued westward. He settled in Denver and purchased a bottling company, where Schueler was one of his customers. Coors Brewing began in 1873 in Golden, Colorado, when Adolf Coors partnered with Jacob Schueler and the two men produced their first barrel of Schueler-Coors beer. In 1880, Coors bought out his partner and by 1893, the company’s beer was honored at the Chicago World’s Fair. In 1916, the Prohibition came to Colorado three years before the rest of the country, and the company had to halt its beer production. It survived those years by focusing on its successful porcelain business and producing malted milk and near beer. With the end of Prohibition in 1933, the company resumed its beer production and by 1939, Coors was distributing in 10 Western states. When the war broke out in 1941, Coors had to receive permission from the government to buy supplies. Its request was approved under one condition:  half of the beer it produced had to be reserved for the military. As they returned from overseas, the troops created such a demand for Coors, availability became scarce, and a mystique was born. In 1960, tragedy struck the company, when Adolph Coors, grandson of the founder, was kidnapped, held for ransom, and eventually shot to death.

By the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, Coors’ distribution was still limited to Western states and its cult status exploded. In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford even loaded Air Force One with cases of Coors to take back to Washington, and the beer was also used as "smuggled goods" in the plot of the popular movie "Smokey and the Bandit". During the 1970s, the market was rapidly changing as mergers and acquisitions created mega-breweries. Coors realized they needed to change in order to survive. In 1981, distribution of Coors finally crossed the Mississippi, and the company expanded rapidly.  By 1990, Coors had grown into the third-largest brewer in America. In 2005 Coors merged with Molson to create Molson Coors; then in 2007, Miller bought a majority stake to form the MillerCoors partnership, Molson Coors Brewing is currently the 5th largest brewer in the world. Some other well-known labels under the Coors name include Killian's, Zima, and Blue Moon.

Coors Light is a light American pale lager. It has a ratebeer.com score of 1.31 out of 5, and is listed as one of the 50 worst beers on that site.

MillerCoors Official Website

Source Data:
MillerCoors Who We Are Page
Wikipedia
Alabev.com
History.com