
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 21, 1991                   TAG: 9103210433
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Landmark News Service
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

COORS FINALLY SPILLS VIRGINIA CONNECTION

Pssst! There's a secret ingredient in Coors beer. Coors bosses stand accused of trying to hush it up, but now the government is making them come clean.

"Brewed with pure Rocky Mountain spring water," the beer's label proclaims.

True enough. But that's not all. In some batches, the brew includes - hold on to your bar stool - water from Virginia.

Coors' rival, Anheuser-Busch, complained about the label last year to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which decided the wording was false and misleading.

Last week, the Golden, Colo.-based company said it would substitute references to "fresh-from-the-Rockies taste."

The water in Coors beer hasn't been 100 percent Rocky Mountain water since 1987, when the brewer opened a plant in Elkton, near Harrisonburg, to serve Eastern markets. The Elkton factory takes beer concentrate brewed in Colorado and adds water from a natural reservoir deep beneath the Appalachians.

The reference to Rocky Mountain water appears only on Coors' regular beer, not on Coors Light, Keystone or other brands.

For Coors, changing the label "is not a big deal," said a spokeswoman, Janet Solberg. "We're still carrying on the Rocky Mountain heritage."

Besides, Solberg disclosed what seasoned beer buyers probably figured all along: Virginia water, Rocky Mountain water - it's pretty much the same. "In the finished product," she said, "there's no difference in taste."

by CNB