Coors clone question

Wanna brew a coors clone and my recipe calls for 6# American 2row and 3# flake maize. Do I have to lager this beer or can I use an ale yeast.

If you're trying to make a clone of coors, then you'd be making a lager. So yes you would have to lager it. And ferment it cold. If you use an ale yeast with that grainbill, then you'd be making what amounts to a cream ale. It's tasty but it wouldn't be a true clone of coors.

A lot of beginning kit beers are pseudo lagers, meaning the yeast that comes with it is a neutral ale yeast, since most beginning brewers aren't set up with the temp control necessary to ferment cool and then drop the temps further to lager near freezing for a length of time.

I guess that depends on your definition of a clone recipe. If you want to try to exactly reproduce the flavors of Coors Banquet, you will need to use a lager strain of yeast. Wyeast used to offer 2015 which was the Coors strain. You may get close with White Labs WLP840. You should try to ferment at 50-55F. Allow the temp to rise slightly for a diacetyl rest and then age at 40F or below.

BTW, Coors does not use corn in their Banquet or Coors Light products. They use rice.

If you want to come close, you can use a clean ale strain like White Labs WLP080 and ferment closer to 65F.

I understand. I'm completely set up to lager and brew anything. I've never done a coors clone . My parents are light beer drinkers and I wanna brew a batch they would like. Just thought I could get away with an ale yeast

Where did you get that recipe from?

I got it from a friend . I also have a recipe for a California common . I'm gonna try to use an ale yeast for that one too.

I bet you will like the California Common with the ale yeast. I had a California Common yeast that didn't activate and I used an American Ale yeast in a pinch. Turned out quite nice.

Wayne1 said:

I guess that depends on your definition of a clone recipe. If you want to try to exactly reproduce the flavors of Coors Banquet, you will need to use a lager strain of yeast. Wyeast used to offer 2015 which was the Coors strain. You may get close with White Labs WLP840. You should try to ferment at 50-55F. Allow the temp to rise slightly for a diacetyl rest and then age at 40F or below.

BTW, Coors does not use corn in their Banquet or Coors Light products. They use rice.

If you want to come close, you can use a clean ale strain like White Labs WLP080 and ferment closer to 65F.

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I believe that Coors uses corn starch as their primary adjunct.

BigEd said:

I believe that Coors uses corn starch as their primary adjunct.

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A clone recipe on another forum mentioned the same thing.

Corn starch is used for Keystone, not Coors Banquet or Coors Light.

It might also be used for Coors Golden.

I DID work for Coors R&D for a few years. I did wander around the brewhouse floor for a bit. I can say I used more hops in 10 bbls of an IPA I made at SandLot than the big brewery used in 250 bbls of Keystone Light

I had heard from a miller/coors rep was that keystone was the same thing as coors light and that it didn't pass the coors light color test. They just rebranded it as keystone.

The important thing is to make sure it's cold brewed!

Just saw the Coors Banquet commercial and it said they only use, "high mountain barley". Im confused. Are they trying to hide the fact they use corn or did they change the recipe?

"Coors Brewing Co. quietly changed the recipe of its Original Coors beer as part of a marketing strategy emphasizing the brand's heritage. The company confirmed that it returned to a 100% rice- based adjunct recipe - the recipe that the company abandoned in the mid-1970s. Coors began using corn starch in the mid-70s because of "volatility" in the rice market, causing concerns about price, quality and availability. Taste-test panels determined that the company could employ corn starch without "affecting the taste," said Dave Taylor, the brewer's corporate communications manager. Hoping to reverse the brand's 20-year sales decline, the Golden brewer announced in the spring that it redesigned the packaging, devised a fresh advertising campaign and improved the quality. Coors debated the wisdom of publicizing the formula change in the spring, deciding to de-emphasize it with the help of the "improved quality" euphemism. "We didn't want to create the perception that we were making radical changes," Taylor said. "Consumers might not notice the difference in the recipe." (Source: Steve Caulk, Rocky Mountain News, August 29, 1996 Thursday, Business; Pg. 1B)"

Coors has contracting the growing of their unique strain of barley for many decades.They are one of the few brewers that malts their own barley.

The California grown rice is an important part of the flavor of Coors Banquet. When it was first developed and even today rice is more expensive than barley. Rice is used to lighten the flavor and mouthfeel, not to "cheapen" the product.

So which is it? 100% rice, 100% barley or some kind of mixture. They had a press release that they were going back to 100% rice but said corn doesn't effect the flavor and then in the commercial say they use nothing but barley. Makes me want buy coors for sure!

Skrimpy said:

So which is it? 100% rice, 100% barley or some kind of mixture. They had a press release that they were going back to 100% rice but said corn doesn't effect the flavor and then in the commercial say they use nothing but barley. Makes me want buy coors for sure!

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You need to be more attuned to "marketing speak" That is, tell the truth for part of the tale but do not tell the whole tale.

Coors uses 100% "high country raised barley" They do not use 100% barley in Coors Banquet but what barley they do use is all raised in Idaho and Colorado 5,000 ft or more above sea level.

The same thing for their adjunct. They use 100% rice for their adjunct. Not a blend of corn and rice or 100% corn or corn starch. I believe they use around 30% rice to malt, but I could be wrong. Federal law allows up to 50% adjunct to be used in anything labeld "beer"

The difference in the various brands offered by Coors is the amount of adjunct, the type of adjunct and the bittering level. All beers brewed in Golden use only leaf hops in the kettle, just not very much for Keystone. Keystone is also made with a fairly high percentage of corn starch for the adjunct.

Coors does offer a 100% barley beer in Colorado Native. That is brewed in the pilot brewery inside the plant in Golden and marketed under the manufacturer's name of A.C Golden.

They also offer Batch 19. That is an adjunct beer based on the recipe of Coors Banquet as it was made prior to prohibition. This comes in around 26 IBU which is very high for an adjunct lager. Current versions of Banquet are about 12 IBU.