Friday, June 3
When we're in Arizona, we stay at Palm Creek RV and Golf Resort. Inside that park, we live on Palo Verde street with several rigs filled with fun people around us. Three doors east of us is a couple named Jerry and Dottie, and their home is in Arvada, Colorado. Last season, we talked about going to Colorado to see our niece and nephew. They invited us to come visit them if we had time while we went to Aurora to see our kids. When we knew for sure that we were headed for Colorado, we let them know and a date was set!
We spent a golden day with golden friends in Golden Colorado, sipping golden beverages. ;=) Jerry & Dottie were hosts with the mosts! LOL Dottie is a part-time tour guide/bus driver/tap operator for Miller Coors, a collaboration, when they're home during the summer. For her efforts, she receives perks in the form of three cases of beer per month, she may daily have up to three beers of her choice after her shift is over, and on Thursdays she may go to the tasting room to see how the new creations set on her palette. Plus she gets a discount at some of the restaurants in town, and we all received a 15% discount coupon for local businesses just for going on the tour. Sounds like a pretty good deal, doesn't it?
Our friends were waiting for us at the brewery parking lot when we showed up about 2 p.m. We were eager to see them and after hugs all around, we headed for the brewery with our personal tour guide! Helluva deal!
After receiving our bracelet that said we're of legal age, Dottie started us on our way. We had no idea Coors makes all these beers! Good grief! And they're always coming up with new ones. There's a new Blue Moon that is called Summer Honey Wheat or something for instance and is a seasonal beer.
The control center for the brewery looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. Bells and whistles, red lights and switches all over the place!
Pretty copper vessels churning and turning out the brews.
In brewing and distilling, mashing is the process of combining a mix of milled grain (typically malted barley with supplementary grains such as corn, sorghum, rye or wheat), known as the "grain bill", and water, known as "liquor", and heating this mixture. Mashing allows the enzymes in the malt to break down the starch in the grain into sugars, typically maltose to create a malty liquid called wort. There are two main methods - infusion mashing, in which the grains are heated in one vessel; and decoction mashing, in which a proportion of the grains are boiled and then returned to the mash, raising the temperature. Mashing involves pauses at certain temperatures (notably 45 °C, 62 °C and 73 °C), and takes place in a "mash tun" - an insulated brewing vessel with a false bottom. The end product of mashing is called a "mash".
The brewing process is amazing to see! The packaging area alone was fascinating! Who invented all the ups, downs, ins and outs to get the cans/bottles from beginning to the end full of beer? And it all moves so fast!
Interesting fact: Because Adolph Coors made his beer from scratch, one of the things he had to make was malt. That product kept him in business during prohibition because he turned it into malted milk.
Brews current and past, and these aren't all of the old ones. Yikes!
Along the way, we saw that Coors recycles 95% of its residual from the brewing process. It goes into all kinds of things that we hadn't thought about such as dog food (Purina uses it), feed lots for cattle, etc. Amazing! We had no idea!
Jerrie and Dottie in the sampling room. Tourists receive a taste of whatever of several beers on tap for sampling that day. That's the first punch on our bracelet. Everyone gets four punches, and I couldn't give my punches to anyone. Darn! I tried!
We look like we've already had all of our punches! LOL
After the tour, we went to the Sampling room where guests are given up to three free 8 oz. samples of beers of their choice. Geri had lemonade, and it was pretty good! LOL College kids from the Mine College don't have to go through the tour. They're just given a bracelet, walk directly to the Sampling room and get up to three free beers every 12 hours if they choose. Coors figures that's who will be buying and consuming their product so let 'em have it!
The Sample room is a madhouse! There are two lines going constantly to the bar.
Bruce and Dottie went up to get their second free beer. Free beer. Whatta concept!
Jerry was behind Dottie and I passed on the second lemonade. Someone has to drive! LOL
We found out that Coors is into ceramics, Kevlar jackets and all kinds of stuff. Guess we shouldn't be surprised at how many different subsidiaries there are for companies anymore. It's amazing when one really starts delving into which company owns what and who.
After our outstanding tour, we walked into town. Golden has a street fair called the First Friday every month, and it's - whattayathink? - on the first Friday of the month. Pretty obvious, huh? It's a hoot to walk the street. We were ahead of the crowds so it was relatively quiet, but it was really wound up by the time we left.
Jerry wanted to take a walk down to Clear creek to see how high the water was. Dottie and I posed on this poor salmon that had been out of the water way too long.
The water level was pretty high and what a beautiful walk!
Castle rock
In 1906 father and son William H. and Clyde L. Ashworth built the original Castle Rock Resort, a cafe atop Castle Rock, where visitors were taken by burro up a trail up the north flank of Castle Rock. After vandalism destroyed it in 1907 the venture was abandoned until Charles F. Quaintance revived it in 1908 with a new cafe and burro train and a road built by Harry Hartzell from the south slope. This was supplemented in 1913 with a lighthouse, dance hall and funicular incline railways to the top. Business faded with the advent of the Denver Mountain Parks, and the funicular rails were salvaged for the allied effort in World War I in 1918. The idle resort was taken over by the Ku Klux Klan during the 1920s as a major meeting and ceremonial place during its rise to power in Colorado. The resort burned to the ground in an arson fire in 1927.
The bus drivers for Coors also take people through town on a mini-tour, so Dottie knows a lot about Golden. It was really interesting to listen to all the info she shared with us.
Astor House, said to be the first building made of concrete blocks.
Opened in 1867, the Astor House was known as the finest stone hotel west of the Mississippi. It offered rooms to lawmakers, laborers, miners, students, and families. Today, visitors are encouraged to wander around a "modern" 1890s kitchen that dished upwards of fifty meals twice a day, and peek at a rope bed that inspired the saying,"Sleep tight, and don't let the bedbugs bite!"
The Armory Building is purported to be the first cobblestone building ever. It's now attorney offices and other businesses.
The largest cobblestone building in the country, built in 1913 with 3,300 wagon loads of stream-worn boulders from Clear Creek and quartz from Golden Gate Canyon.
Woody's is where we wound up for dinner. Whatta joint! Jerry, Dottie and Bruce split a pizza while Geri, being different, ordered fish and chips. Great company and good food!
We finished off our special afternoon at Jerry & Dottie's. Their home is lovely! The guys shot a little pool, Geri danced a little to the music coming from the jukebox, we ate gelato ice cream bars and had a wonderful visit with our very gracious hosts.
It was great to spend one-on-one time with Jerry and Dottie and get to know them better. Thank you both!
