The Coors Brewery Tour is known for 2 things: 1) seeing behind the scenes of the iconic brewery in Golden, CO, and 2) the free beer in the Tasting Room. But there are several environmental related topics presented throughout the tour. I’ve highlighted several of them here, along with some information from the MillerCoors Sustainability and Environmental Stewardship pages. I’ve toured several breweries. Each time I’m reminded of the industrial process involved in brewing and packaging. So I also have on my CHMM-hat looking the environmental, health, and safety of the brewery.

The first photo, blurry one on the right, states, “In 1959, Coors introduced the first all-aluminum beverage can. That same year, the brewery launched a recycling revolution, offering a penny for each returned can.” This is in the first room of the tour, which discusses Coors’ history. They are proud of this one.

Other key environmental facts about the brewery:

• The brewery has reduced it’s energy use by 50% since 2010. 50% is a significant amount.
• The brewery became a Zero Waste to Landfill facility in 2013 and is one of only 4 breweries to achieve this. Or was it 1 of 5? (It was part of the audio tour.) The other 3 or 4 are also MillerCoors breweries.
• The brewery sends the brewing residual waste stream to be converted to fuel-grade ethanol.
• According to their Waste Reduction page: “Currently, we reuse or recycle nearly 100 percent of our brewery waste including protein-rich residual brewer’s grain and spent yeast, glass cullet, aluminum, plastic, wood and other materials.” I believe this is for all breweries, not only the Golden brewery.

Have you toured this or other brewery and found any unique environmental initiatives? Here’s a photo tour of some highlights of the tour.

A reminder that this is an industrial product. It takes good science to keep beer sanitary and consistent.

A refrigerator with Acid and NFPA 704 markings. Now we’re into the world of a CHMM.

Old school hydrometers used to measure the sugar content in wort for yeast production.

“Waste is a resource out of place.” This quote is repeated on the audio tour. (Poor lighting on this photo.)

These next 2 are good reminders of the industrial nature of brewing this much beer. I hope they have good environmental, health, and safety professionals working here.

Part of the Coors Brewery Tour, Golden, CO

Sign as you leave the Tasting Room at the end of the tour. Safety first! Well, maybe a few beers first.