Molson Coors Returns Pre-Prohibition Beer To A Coronavirus World

After a 5-year absence, a pre-Prohibition lager is making its return to retail outlets, at least those that remain open.

Batch 19 was created by Adolph Coors, banned by Prohibition and it’s recipe lost for decades. A century later the beer’s recipe was rediscovered in one of Adolph Coors’ logbooks and returned to store shelves for a five year run which ended in 2015.

Brewed by AC Golden, a Molson Coors’  brewery in Golden, Co. that serves as a small-batch testing ground for the company including Colorado Native’s array of ales and sours, Batch 19 returned as draft only offering which was only available in Colorado and Wisconsin in 2019.

But now with much of the nation sheltering-in-place, Batch 19 is going nationwide, this time in cans.

“The number one question we get on the (Coors) Golden brewery tour is, ‘What happened to Batch 19, and how can we get it back?’” says Meagan Nelson, marketing manager for AC Golden. “Seeing the success of its return to draft, and still hearing the off-premise demand for Batch 19, we decided to bring it back.”

But no one could have predicted brand’s relaunch coinciding with an unprecedented global pandemic…

“We actually had several conversations about pushing back the launch, just given the state of the world right now,” Nelson says. “But we went to our distributors, as well as our key retailers, and they said, ‘we’ll take it and we want it.’ They’ve been so excited for this to come to packaging.”

Pouring a dark copper color and sporting a full white head, Batch 19 is a naturally filtered and unpasteurized, 5.5% ABV Lager which the brewery describes as having “a smooth, medium body with a crisp finish.

Released as part of Molson Coors Tenth & Blake ‘crafty’ division, Batch 19 is neither a small batch offering, nor is it considered a craft beer by those who subscribe to the Brewers Association’s definition.

But it does have an interesting backstory that resonates…and you gotta like that.