Coorstek makes historical bottle-making discovery during renovations

GOLDEN, Colo. (KRDO) - The Coors Brewing Company may have been at the forefront of the beverage industry's switch to aluminum cans, but in the late 1800s, they bottled beer with glass just like everyone else.

Despite over two decades of local glass manufacturing, the Coors family had very little physical record from that era of bottling.

"Before we actually started construction here at the site, we didn't have a single example of one of our glass bottles in our archive and in our collection, and very few actually existed anywhere," said Coors family archivist Melanie Keerins.

The company Coorstek, a technical ceramics company within the Coors family trust, recently started renovations to its old historical manufacturing buildings on 9th and Washington Avenue. It will turn the abandoned factory spaces into the "Clayworks" community, with housing, parking, office and retail spaces, according to the City of Golden.

One of the old buildings was the original site for founder Adolf Coors' 'Colorado Glass Works' company. He created the venture in 1887 to produce glass bottles specifically for bottling at his brewery across the street.

Soon enough, Coorstek's renovation turned into a hoppy archaeological excavation.

"We did actually find complete bottles, which you wouldn't think of from like 1887. We actually find complete bottles. Most likely beer," Keerins said.

Beer bottles so old, it's hard to tell if they actually held beer.

Coorstek does not yet have a timeline for when the renovations will be complete, but Keerins hopes they continue to make historical discoveries along the way.