Coors clone

SSBrew - 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Steveruch said:
thank you, your help has been invaluable.
Click to expand...

so you're checking out the brew science forum, and what makes Colorado mountain spring water unique? ;)

edit: damn i had it wrong, rocky mountain water, so still...you're going to have to get into water chemistry....
 
Steveruch said:
that would be hamms "from the land of sky blue water".
Click to expand...

Also, Olympia ("It's the water") at least from days gone by (it's now brewed down near LA, with lord only knows what water)...

As for the OP, there are a number of Coors clone recipes, though one surely needs to vett them (I found one with 30% crystal and an SRM over 8, ffs!)...

Cheers!
 
When they started making Coors Light in Virginia instead of Golden, CO, they changes their advertising from "Pure Rocky Mountain Spring Water" to "The Spirit of the Rockies." I had to laugh.

Even before that, they were brewing high gravity Coors Light in Golden and shipping it by rail car to Virginia to be blended with Virginia water and bottled/canned/kegged.
 
Steveruch said:
Anyone have a recipe that comes reasonably close to regular coors?
Click to expand...


OK I'll step into the breech here. First I'll assume you are an all-grain brewer. Frankly I wouldn't attempt this style otherwise. Coors does use halfway decent malt for a megabrewer so I'd suggest a 50/50 blend of German pils and domestic pale malt. From what I understand they use a blend of adjuncts combining corn starch and rice. The hops should be German style. You could use anything like Hallertau, Spalt, Mt Hood, etc either alone or blended. Ferment with a clean lager yeast you like. Wyeast Danish is nice although there are other choices. If doing a single temp mash try 152F/67C, for a two step maybe 148F/64C for 30 minutes then maybe 158F/70C for another 30. Use low mineral, pilsner-like water with 50-75ppm of Ca+ and Cl- and not much of anything else.

Based on 5 gallons US:

3 lbs German pils malt (33.3%)

3 lbs domestic pale malt (33.3%)

1.5 lbs corn starch (16.7%) (mix together dry with the malt before adding strike water)

1.5 lbs flaked rice (16.7%) (mix together dry with the malt before adding strike water)

.5 oz 4.5%AA hops @ 60 min

.5 oz 4.5%AA hops @ 20 min
 
February (I think) is the last month to get the Wyeast Rocky Mtn Lager yeast for the year. It's a seasonal/limited edition and a beast for a lager yeast. I brew 3-4 batches from repitched slurries every year after it is released. Just keg'd a Std American Lager w/ it two weeks ago. WLP 840 and 850 are also good options. 840 is a little softer/rounded/malt-fwd and 850 is pretty spritzy/dry. Imperial Organic's Que Bueno would get you in the ballpark too.

The closest I ever got to Coors Banquet was 50% pils, 35% 2-row, 15% flaked maize. Mashed in at 144 for an hour then raised slowly to mash-out over 30 minutes (direct fired). You could probably split the difference w/ a 90 minute single infusion mash at 146-148*. I'm sure Coors uses a higher percentage adjunct than I use. I wasn't "trying" to clone Banquet, just get in the neighborhood and limit the adjunct. Perhaps upping my maize % to 25% in place of some pils and lowering the first rest to 142-4* would get closer. With all that corny goodness you want to be sure to reach full attenuation or it will be icky sweet.
 
Have you looked at the Cream of Three Crops recipe in the database? It's my understanding that it's a reasonable substitute for nearly any light American lager.
 
day_trippr said:
I gotta say the corn starch thing is hard to fathom given the unlimited supply of liquid corn available...

Cheers!
Click to expand...

Yeah, this came up when the internet was going nuts over high fructose corn syrup. Miller Coors had to come out and state, "the corn we use is a liquid corn brewing adjunct, but it is not high fructose corn syrup."

Then, when Bud Light revived the "corntroversy" in 2019 Super Bowl ads, Miller Coors President of Emerging Growth tweeted, "Bud Light uses rice to aid fermentation. We use corn syrup. Interestingly, none of our products use High Fructose Corn Syrup, yet several of ABI’s do. Things that make you go hmmmmm" - https://twitter.com/pjmarino2/status/1092214543923757057

So, break out the Karo!
 
BigEd said:
Based on 5 gallons US:

3 lbs German pils malt (33.3%)

3 lbs domestic pale malt (33.3%)

1.5 lbs corn starch (16.7%) (mix together dry with the malt before adding strike water)

1.5 lbs flaked rice (16.7%) (mix together dry with the malt before adding strike water)

.5 oz 4.5%AA hops @ 60 min

.5 oz 4.5%AA hops @ 20 min
Click to expand...

In all my years of home brewing I've never brewed with corn starch as an adjunct or fermentable. I don't know why. I guess it never occurred to me to use it. Corn sugar, dextrose, flaked corn, even corn meal, sure, but never corn starch. Only used it in cooking when I was trying to thicken a sauce. So I did a little research, and ended up jumping down a rabbit hole. I won't bore you with the details but I did gain new knowledge and insight into enzymes and saccharides, which I thought I'd already had at least a 'working' knowledge as they relate to brewing.

But amidst all the technical data and scientific papers I never found any practical discussion about the use of corn starch in beer brewing instead of corn sugar or pure dextrose. From what I could ascertain they all appear to do the same thing since they are all basically the same thing (dextrose). So are they directly interchangeable? Can each be used as one-for-one replacements in a recipe? Since the Coors clone recipe in this thread specifically states "corn starch" instead of corn "sugar" is there any perceptible difference in the finished beer?

I understand that "sugar" is the catch-all for "saccharides", and that starches are polysaccharides, but is there a significant difference in the specific percentage of one sugar (dextrose) over the others that would dictate using corn starch over corn sugar in a recipe? Or is this just a semantic difference without discernible distinction?

Brooo Brother
 
I think Pappazian had a light lager type recipe in "Complete Joy of Homebrewing". "Un-American Light Lager" possibly?

Think it used cornstarch too.

All the Best,
D. White
 
Here my friend please try making this tried and true HBT recipe:
Blonde Ale - Centennial Blonde (Simple 4% All Grain, 5 & 10 Gall)

Those of us who know the taste of Coors also know this bone stock recipe will get you somewhere in between a Coors Light and a Coors Banquet ( ;

Those of us who have tried this base recipe using a different yeast strain (or two) know it can taste like a Pacifico or a PBR or even a Rainer just by changing the yeast strain. Crazy huh?!
 
"This reminds me of what a local craft brewery might come out of the gates with to win over a new market."

Circa 2007. Times have certainly changed :)

Cheers!
 
Coors is my Dad’s favorite beer. I’ve spent the better part of 2 years and a dozen or so batches trying to get it nailed down. I got very close before I deviated into my own thing.

The best starting point for you is:
RO/Distilled water. Add enough CaCl to get to 50ppm calcium. No other minerals.

Grain bill (whatever it takes to get to 1.045-46)

85-90% Rahr 2-Row/Pilsner (or similar blend of 2-Row/Pilsner malts)

10-15% Flaked Corn

0-5% Weyerman Carahell/Briess Caramel 10

Hops: Something mild/noble (Mittelfruh/Mt. Hood/Tradition/Magnum/etc...) @ FWH to 18-20IBU

The closest yeast you can get that is regularly available is 2278 Czech Lager or its Omega/Imperial equivalents. Wyeast does occasionally release the actual coors strain to homebrewers (2105 Rocky Mountain Lager). That’s what really makes coors taste like coors. If you can find someone that has the strain banked, that is your best bet.

As far as yeast handling, pitch a LOT of active and healthy yeast )At least 2-2.5mil/plato) and ferment as cold as you can.

It helps a LOT if you are able to employ the basic brewing techniques of low oxygen brewing. Soft boil, step mash, clear wort, etc... this beer doesn’t HAVE to be brewed full low oxygen, but it really benefits from it if you can.

Edit: It looks like Wyeast 2105 Rocky Mountain Lager is actually available as a private collection release right now. I just ordered 4 packages to give this beer a go again.
 
Last edited:
MrPowers said:
Coors is my Dad’s favorite beer. I’ve spent the better part of 2 years and a dozen or so batches trying to get it nailed down. I got very close before I deviated into my own thing.

The best starting point for you is:
RO/Distilled water. Add enough CaCl to get to 50ppm calcium. No other minerals.

Grain bill (whatever it takes to get to 1.045-46)

85-90% Rahr 2-Row/Pilsner (or similar blend of 2-Row/Pilsner malts)

10-15% Flaked Corn

0-5% Weyerman Carahell/Briess Caramel 10

Hops: Something mild/noble (Mittelfruh/Mt. Hood/Tradition/Magnum/etc...) @ FWH to 18-20IBU

The closest yeast you can get that is regularly available is 2278 Czech Lager or its Omega/Imperial equivalents. Wyeast does occasionally release the actual coors strain to homebrewers (2105 Rocky Mountain Lager). That’s what really makes coors taste like coors. If you can find someone that has the strain banked, that is your best bet.

As far as yeast handling, pitch a LOT of active and healthy yeast )At least 2-2.5mil/plato) and ferment as cold as you can.

It helps a LOT if you are able to employ the basic brewing techniques of low oxygen brewing. Soft boil, step mash, clear wort, etc... this beer doesn’t HAVE to be brewed full low oxygen, but it really benefits from it if you can.

Edit: It looks like Wyeast 2105 Rocky Mountain Lager is actually available as a private collection release right now. I just ordered 4 packages to give this beer a go again.
Click to expand...


Nice recipe. One question: is the 18-20 IBU first wort the only hops addition; i.e., no flavor/aroma hops? The overall bittering rate of ~20 IBUs does sound about right, but I'm surprised there aren't any in the late boil or hop stand.

Brooo Brother
 
Screenshot-2019-02-04-14.06.04.png
 
All grain process, something like 60% North American 2-row, 40% adjunct (corn, rice or a mix of both) soft water, and ferment cold with a huge pitch of an appropriate lager strain. I like Wyeast 2007. Hops for bittering only.

A key to getting the right "flavour" in this style is to brew and ferment it as a high strength base beer and then dilute it with water at packaging. I describe in detail this process in one of my blog posts (link is in my profile) and have had good competition success using this approach.

Good luck!

- AC
 
One thing that Coors has that nobody else has is their malt. The company uses several proprietary varieties of Moravian malt. All of these varieties are grown under contract by farmers who are contractually prevented from selling, or otherwise sharing, any of their production.

Anyone trying to clone Coors might want to use one of the Moravian style pilsener malts. Both
Briess and Weyermann produce those and Viking pilsener might also be an option.

Unless you know someone who grows barley for Coors, and is willing to slip you a few pounds under the table, you ain’t gonna lay your hands on any Moravian 69 or Bill Coors 100. And, even if you got some, you’d have to malt it yourself.
 
Brooothru said:
Nice recipe. One question: is the 18-20 IBU first wort the only hops addition; i.e., no flavor/aroma hops? The overall bittering rate of ~20 IBUs does sound about right, but I'm surprised there aren't any in the late boil or hop stand.

Brooo Brother
Click to expand...

There definitely aren’t any late hops in the beer. In fact, if you brew it low oxygen, there may be too much hop character with just the FWH addition and you would need to sub in some hop extract.

Edit: That said, I am a fan of a small 15 minute and small flameout addition in my variation on the recipe.
 
Last edited:
artichoke said:
All grain process, something like 60% North American 2-row, 40% adjunct (corn, rice or a mix of both) soft water, and ferment cold with a huge pitch of an appropriate lager strain. I like Wyeast 2007. Hops for bittering only.

- AC
Click to expand...

I think 40% corn is way too high for coors banquet. I wouldn’t be surprised if the original had 10% or less. For coors light, 40% adjuncts is probably about right.

I am intrigued about your high gravity brewing and diluting process though, I may have to go check that out.

grampamark said:
One thing that Coors has that nobody else has is their malt. The company uses several proprietary varieties of Moravian malt. All of these varieties are grown under contract by farmers who are contractually prevented from selling, or otherwise sharing, any of their production.

Anyone trying to clone Coors might want to use one of the Moravian style pilsener malts. Both
Briess and Weyermann produce those and Viking pilsener might also be an option.

Unless you know someone who grows barley for Coors, and is willing to slip you a few pounds under the table, you ain’t gonna lay your hands on any Moravian 69 or Bill Coors 100. And, even if you got some, you’d have to malt it yourself.
Click to expand...

While it is true that coors has some proprietary barley strains, I would still say that 90% of the “Coors” flavor comes from their yeast strain. If you haven’t used 2105 before, try it and see what I mean.

Using a continental malt like Weyermann tastes great in the style, but it doesn’t have the same character that an american grown 2-Row/Pilsner has.
 
MrPowers said:
There definitely aren’t any late hops in the beer. In fact, if you brew it low oxygen, there may be too much hop character with just the FWH addition and you would need to sub in some hop extract.

Edit: That said, I am a fan of a small 15 minute and small flameout addition in my variation on the recipe.
Click to expand...

I'm trying to incorporate as much LoDO as I can and believe it helps to enhance hops flavors and bitterness. I'm thinking a 'softer' hop like Mittlefrue for ~20 IBUs split between FWH, late addition or hop stand. Something like a 4% AA hop, mostly German pilsner malts paired with a clean, dry finishing lager yeast.

Could it be that Continental style lagers are making a comeback?

Brooo Brother
 
Brooothru said:
I'm trying to incorporate as much LoDO as I can and believe it helps to enhance hops flavors and bitterness. I'm thinking a 'softer' hop like Mittlefrue for ~20 IBUs split between FWH, late addition or hop stand. Something like a 4% AA hop, mostly German pilsner malts paired with a clean, dry finishing lager yeast.

Could it be that Continental style lagers are making a comeback?

Brooo Brother
Click to expand...

German Hersbrucker/Saphir/Tradition are my personal favorites, but any of the more mild hops (Mittelfruh, Tettnang, Saaz, Mt. Hood, Liberty, etc...) would be great in the style!

Continental lagers are most definitely making a comeback!
 
When I worked for Coors, 25 years ago, they were still using cereal cookers. The cereal used for Banquet was rice. It made up roughly 25% of the grain bill. Now that they are using syrups, I have no idea what the ratio would be.

Coors still does all the malting for their grain. You might be able to get close by using grains from either Colorado Malting Company or Root Shoot Malting. Both of them used to grow for Coors. They may not offer the exact same variety, but it will be grown in the same terroir.

Hops were all whole hops. Hallertau from Germany. Shhot for around 15 IBU. One addition. 60 min.
 
Wayne1 said:
When I worked for Coors, 25 years ago, they were still using cereal cookers. The cereal used for Banquet was rice. It made up roughly 25% of the grain bill. Now that they are using syrups, I have no idea what the ratio would be.

Coors still does all the malting for their grain. You might be able to get close by using grains from either Colorado Malting Company or Root Shoot Malting. Both of them used to grow for Coors. They may not offer the exact same variety, but it will be grown in the same terroir.

Hops were all whole hops. Hallertau from Germany. Shhot for around 15 IBU. One addition. 60 min.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Wayne!

This thread has really sparked my interest. Back in my college years (loooong time ago) Coors was the go to since it was available in state but not in my home state. Later when I was stationed in Florida and Mississippi, my folks would bootleg a few cases when they'd visit. That Coors had such an exotic aura about it.

My fascination with 1960s style U.S. beers ended when I began traveling on/off through Europe (specifically Germany) for the next 40 years and learned what real beer is supposed to taste like. Continental lagers are still my favorite style.

Fast forward to today. My 42 year old son, a health conscious beer loving athletically fit individual, loves craft beers and IPAs but usually only has low-cal Coors in his fridge at home. When he and his family come over for dinner he'll drain my kegerator dry of pales and IPAs but barely touch a lager. I'm thinking a 'Coors' on tap may wean him, so I won't have to brew as many IPAs.

Not that there's anything wrong with that!

Brooo Brother
 
Found the link with the quote below before I found this thread.

Our subtle blend of Chinook, Hallertau, Herkules and Taurus hops gives Coors Banquet just the perfect hint of bitterness to offset the malty sweetness.

https://www.coors.com/Ingredients
 
I just made the 3 creams of Budweiser recipe, or whatever @BierMuncher calls it. It's supposed to keep the BMC crowd happy. I did it because I rather wanted to see if I could even make a facsimile of all those North American beers that taste the same. And something for my wife to perhaps appreciate the hobby. SWMBO surfs sometimes.

I use @BierMuncher recipe as a guide. My actual grain bill was
8lbs of 2 row
2lbs flaked rice
2lbs flaked corn
90 minute boil is called for.
I got bored and added my hops around 45, and called it a day at 75 minutes.
hops were crystal and willamette 1 ounce each for 30 minutes / or enough to take it to 15 IBU

Think I have around 6.5 gallons in the fermentor, and I'll end up around 4% ABV. You can use the math and an online recipe builder to get specific volume to target the ABV you'd like. Not sure if this is what everyone does, but I tend target ABV and volumes as I go. Not to fussed if I miss targets, as my mash efficiency is decent.

The ale looks pretty colourless when I take a gravity. Tasted very corny early on. A slight corn taste, or is it aroma, is still present, but I do now have a not too unpleasant light tasting ale at 1.008, which must be just about finished. Carbonation might see off the corn aroma, and leave something palettable.

I made it for wife and friends, but I'll probably enjoy a couple of cold ones when I want to wet my whistle, without a malt overload. If it's any good. Taste in the primary has never let me down, so it promises to be o.k. I'll report back.
 
day_trippr said:
I am stunned that they use that many strains, given "subtle" and "hint" are prominent metrics ;)

Cheers!
Click to expand...

Ain't that the truth!

Recently I got ahold of some Wyeast 1217 PC "Rocky Mountain" lager yeast and decided to take a stroll down Memory Lane to capture lightning in a bottle (he said, dealing in poorly mixed metaphors). Growing up in the 60s on the Missouri side of the Kansas/Missouri border, Coors Banquet was considered the magical elixir (another bad metaphor; sorry) since it wasn't distributed "that far" east. Which might have been a rationale for going to college in Kansas, but I digress. Anyway, Coors was the preferred alternative to Bud, and Miller and Falstaff were what your father, drank, so nobody went there. Fast forward ten years and I'm a Naval Aviator, teaching aspiring young Student Naval Aviators the nuances of jet aircraft and tactical flying while endeavoring to stay alive long enough to enjoy a frosty cold Coors Light Silver Bullet (or three) at the end of the long workday. We used to say that student pilots exhibited a personality trait known as NAFD (No Apparent Fear of Death). In reality, we all had that same defect in our early careers, oblivious to what should have been plainly obvious. In any event, downing some Rocky Mountain spring water after your last hop of the day was a welcome relief.

Today my beer-loving but health conscious son usually has a supply of Coors Light in his beer fridge, stashed behind the craft beers and hop bombs. I hadn't had one in years, but after helping him out on some project he handed me one, and it wasn't that BAD! In fact, it was a lot like a Helles or other light European lagers which are my go-to on hot summer days. So I decided to brew a Coors Banquet as well as a Coors Light and give him a half keg for his kegerator. Since the grains and hops are fairly easy to get, and I already had the yeast, all I had to do was add water. After some searching of recipe data bases and various websites including the Coors site, I formulated my own "consensus recipe" that I though would work. I'm not sure that Taurus and Herkules were common when A. Coors first started brewing in Golden, CO, and I'm damned sure Chinook wasn't, but I included them anyway in the Banquet recipe in 'supporting roles' just because Coors listed them online. I haven't yet brewed the Banquet because it slipped a few positions on the To Brew list, and now I don't have the keg space or the beer fridge space. Clone-worthiness is still TBD.

I did however brew the Coors Light. This was made with floor malted Czech Pilsner, a pound of Pale Ale Malt to add a touch of color, and 14 oz of corn sugar to dry things out a bit. The hops were Herkules and Chinook at :15 minutes for 9.2 IBUs and Mittelfrueh at :05 minus for 2.3 IBUs, total 11.5 IBUs. Ferment, clear, lager. 4.2% ABV, 2.9 est. SRM, 92.8 est. Kcal, est. 3.7 carbs. The keg got tapped 3 days ago when the Pils I had on tap finally kicked. I had bumped the carbonation slightly while it was lagering, and I overshot so it's now settling out while some of the CO2 dissipates. But the TASTE! I know it's cliche, but this really TASTES better than the real thing. Now some might think that's a low bar to have hurdled, but this is as good as any Leichtbier I ever had in Germany, and light years ahead of any Bud or Miller "Lite".

I WAS going to split this one with my son, but somehow I think the Old Man might just end up keepin' it. Naw, I'll probably end up sharing. After all, he's the one that got me interested in home brewing in the first place.
 
My dad was flying in the air force and we lived on the East Coast for a while. As a child of the West, when he would fly to the West and brought back Coors in the bomb bay of his plane at least one time from there (as wasn't distributed east as mentioned). I believe at least some of it was CL, in fact. The use of the "exotic" beer helped ply some neighbors on an issue. Sadly, later he had hidden the stash in a downstairs fridge when he had a promotion party at our house. The revelers found their way into the utility room downstairs and drank it all. Dad was quite upset.

@Brooothru - saw your similar earlier post on another thread, can't seem to find it now. Coors banquet seems to have flavor to me within its class but not in the hop department. I hadn't tried Coors light in years but tried some recently-and was surprised how fruity it tasted to me. Having said that, I did visit the main CO brewery in person a few years ago. I didn't try CL then, but many other items. I can tell you that from this trip and others to large breweries that put out debatable products: Everything tastes much better there, when ultra-fresh. I don't understand the fruitiness that I tasted in CL, though (yeast change???). I'll have to check again, that might have been another dark horse light beer I tried.

@Wayne1 who had worked for them put earlier in the thread:

Hops were all whole hops. Hallertau from Germany. Shhot for around 15 IBU. One addition. 60 min.

That was years ago, my guess is the new hop mix is based on economics of using super alphas.

Most of what I use for bittering is Magnum at this point due to the school of thought that bittering hops offer no differentiation in taste. I am intrigued after reading about Herkules due to finding this info, though.

I found an ingredients list. No proportion breakdowns but it lists the same ingredients for both banquet and CL:

Water, Barley Malt, Corn Syrup (Dextrose), Yeast, Hop Extract

From 2013, this thread (including @Wayne1 ) substantiated that they had changed to rice Coors clone question . From a previous communication I had with Coors years ago (prior to 2013), at that time they were using a starch syrup product in many beverages, I believe it was wheat-based. So it's apparent they make periodic recipe changes, even to the top sellers ostensibly for quality, but probably more for economic/marketing reasons. I find that interesting from a product and marketing perspective. Separate brewery, same idea-Shiner Bock has also had one if not two recipes changes in the last 10 years, and is a shadow of its former self to me. Luckily I have a recipe for the old version and brew it occasionally.
 
Last edited:
Have a fiends who’s family grows Barley for Coors in Idaho. Highly highly doubt they’re importing European barley for their beer.

I believe Coors is fermented in the 60s with a bunch of head pressure. Then there’s all the enzymes they probably use.

Thinking some “recipe” will get your anywhere close is IMHO complete nonsense.

I can’t get over the isoamyl acetate in Coors personally.

That being said their yeast is phenomenal. It’s said to be the Andechs strain. It’s hands down the easiest lager yeast I’ve ever used. Ferments outs in 5-7 days at 50, drops like a rock, and is insanely clean. Cleaner right after fermentation than any lager yeast I’ve ever used. Blows me away that it’s not more readily available.
 

Similar threads

tderanleau
Coors banquet
2 3
Replies
87
Views
6K
Red over White
Red over White
Matteo57
Bottle Logic - Darkstar November Clone?
Replies
0
Views
174
Matteo57
Matteo57
tderanleau
Coors banquet srm
Replies
12
Views
981
NewJersey
NewJersey
Rick Mercadante
Looking for a Crisp Lager clone recipe
Replies
4
Views
416
kevin58
kevin58
N
Chocolate Malt - Substitute Lower SRM at Higher Rate
Replies
8
Views
418
rhys333
rhys333

Latest posts

Back
Top