(Courtesy Molson Coors)

Coors Banquet isn’t just a beer—it’s a piece of American brewing history. Born in the Rockies and wrapped in more than a century of stories, this golden lager has built up a cult following that stretches far beyond its hometown of Golden, Colorado.

And here are ten things you might not know about Coors Banquet:

It’s been brewed in the same place since 1873
Adolph Coors founded the Coors Brewing Company in Golden, Colorado, and Banquet is still made there today—no outsourcing, no alternate breweries.

The name comes from miners’ parties
In the late 1800s, Colorado miners would celebrate with Coors after long days underground. Their raucous get-togethers became known as “banquets,” which gave the beer its name.

It was once a “forbidden fruit” east of the Mississippi
For decades, Coors Banquet wasn’t pasteurized, so it had to stay cold. That meant limited distribution—basically west of the Mississippi. People smuggled cases across state lines, and it became a beer with outlaw mystique.

The bootlegging craze even inspired a movie
Yep—Smokey and the Bandit (1977) is literally about running Coors Banquet from Texas to Georgia. Burt Reynolds made Banquet a pop-culture icon.

It uses Rocky Mountain water—literally
The company still touts its use of water from the Rocky Mountains, a brand cornerstone since day one.

The stubby bottles are a throwback chic
Banquet is famous for its squat, rounded bottles—nicknamed “stubbies.” They disappeared in the late ’90s but made a triumphant comeback in 2013.

It’s been a favorite of presidents
Rumor has it that both Gerald Ford and Dwight Eisenhower were fans, keeping Banquet stocked at the White House.

Banquet is still brewed with “high country barley”
Coors works directly with farmers in Colorado, Montana, and Idaho to source its signature two-row barley.

It helped kickstart the craft beer movement (sort of, kinda, maybe)
Because Banquet wasn’t available everywhere, it opened the door for beer geeks to start chasing rare brews—laying some groundwork for today’s beer-obsessed culture.

It’s having a pop-culture resurgence
From Cobra Kai to Yellowstone, and countless Instagram posts, Coors Banquet has found new life as a retro-cool beer that’s both nostalgic and proudly blue-collar.

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