THE SILVER BULLET OF BOURBONS

David Coors, a fifth-generation member of the Colorado family whose name has been printed on beer labels for 150 years, suggested that the company expand into spirits several decades ago. “When I first brought this up [to my father, Pete Coors], he shot me down and told me that ‘we’re good at making one thing, and that’s beer’ and that was the end of the conversation,” he said. “But times change.”

The Coors name has been associated with beer for 150 years, but the Colorado brewer is tapping into Kentucky with the release of its first bourbon.

Two years after it released its first whiskey, Coors is out with Barmen 1873 — a Kentucky bourbon that’s made with Kentucky water — and also bottled in the Bluegrass State.

Barmen 1873, which refers to the year that the Coors Brewing Company was founded, is available only in 13 states: Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, New York, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, and Colorado.