Back 2 School Booze: Coors Banquet Beer

It's that wonderful time of year where the days are long, produce is farm fresh, and millions of young'uns are headed back to the ivory tower of academia. That's right, August and September represent the start of the year for college students.

It's no secret that most of our staff make our living educating the future of our country at various colleges and universities; it's an obligation we take very seriously.

Almost as important is ensuring that the young men and women who have reached the watershed age of 21 (or 18 in Canada) over the summer begin to develop a sophisticated palate, one that will wow the pants off of their college mates this Fall. To that end, WestToast is proud to bring you our next series: Back 2 School Booze.

Over the next month, each writer will revisit our college days, sharing the finest swill that we could afford ten years ago. OK, so sophisticated might be exaggerating a *little*, but at least it didn't kill us. Without further adieu...

Josh's Gonzaga Experience

I'll admit, I may have imbibed in cheap spirits and malt liquor before my drivers license said I could; often with disastrous results. It's with those memories in mind that I remind all of our fine readers that the drinking age is likely there to protect us from ourselves; cheap tequila and 40's aren't good for anybody and frankly, at that age many will drink anything they can get their hands on. We do not condone that here at WestToast.

I went to school at Gonzaga University, a smallish regional Catholic liberal arts institution in Spokane, Washington. As a newly minted adult of record, my friends and I were looking to take that next step up and make our Jesuit priests proud. No sir, Natural Ice was not going to cut it. If we had been a little more crafty, I'm sure we could have snuck in to the bar at the Jesuit House, acclaimed to be the best stocked bar in Spokane. Instead, we made an unspoken decision to settle for the best the gas station across the street had to offer.

Coors Banquet Beer.

It's got banquet in the name, that means it's classy.

While my friends and I agreed with that sentiment at the time, as I went to my local fine food market the other day to revisit Coors, I felt a little self-concious. The checker had to be judging me. To make the experience of a 31 year old fine beverage journalist guzzling Coors even more absurd, friends Drew and Jake joined as we enjoyed a fine selection of local cheese and fruit with the beer.

Full disclosure:

1. I didn't have any friends at Gonzaga named Drew or Jake.
2. We didn't pair Coors with fine fruit or cheese in college.  Most often it was pizza.  From Domino's.  
3. Gonzaga University does not endorse nor condone this post.
4. We only drank cans in college.  The glass bottles made an inconvenient clinking noise, duh.

About Coors

Founded in Golden, Colorado in 1873 by German immigrants, Coors survived the Prohibition by making malted milk, near beer, and porcelain. Yep, porcelain. Soon after, Coors staked it's claim as a popular regional beer in the American West. In 1959 the company made it's mark in the history books by using the first all-aluminum two-piece beverage can.

Even more notably, Coors was featured in the 1977 movie Smokey and the Bandit, one of our favorite movies here at WestToast. Also, relevant to the Back 2 School Booze series, Coors has sponsored the Coors Events Center on the University of Colorado in Boulder campus, and, the Coors Life Direction Center of Regis University is named after Coors.

Today Coors operates the single largest brewery facility in the world, and through a series of mergers and buyouts is now owned by the Canadian Molson Coors Brewing Company.

Coors Banquet Beer

Brewery: Coors Brewing Company
Style: Pale Lager
BeerAdvocate.com Rating: 65
RateBeer.com Rating: 1 overall
Serving: 12oz bottle or can

With 5% ABV, this beer contains a bit more alcohol than it's macro brew counterparts in the United States.

Upon pouring into a pint glass, I noticed a distinct lack of head and it was the color of apple juice or urine. It was super light.

On first taste, both Drew and Jake were pleasantly surprised:

Drew: The initial taste is not high quality, but after that it is quite refreshing. Sh*t, you get 5%! Jake: I remember it tasting worse. It's watered down, but at least it's Rocky Mountain water.

This malty macro brew definitely qualifies for a session beer -- you could drink it all day long. Smooth and refreshing on a hot day, I can report that it is absolutely disgusting when paired with an aged gouda. All parties involved agreed though that the sweetness of some local pears complemented the beer nicely, as did some fresh figs, after schooling Drew on what a fig newton was.

After finishing our first round, we were debating what to drink next. Jake was a bit worried about the Coors tainting our taste buds, but as I astutely pointed out, the Coors isn't doing sh*t to our taste buds.

So college student friends, if you're looking to demonstrate that you have grown beyond Schlitz's or Mickey's but you're not quite ready for Blue Moon, the Banquet Beer is an option that is not egregious. Unless you don't live in the American West, cause then everyone will think you're a cowboy.

The problem here, is that Coors beer, you take that east of Texas and that's uh, that's bootlegging.