By early 1876, Lake City, one of the mining boomtowns recently sprung up in the Colorado Territory’s San Juan Mountains, was home to an organized school district, a dance hall and an amateur theater troupe, along with multiple blacksmiths, hardware stores, grocers and a busy lumber mill.

But as the spring thaw set in on western Colorado’s rugged mountain wagon roads, news of another impending milestone in Lake City’s commercial development arrived in the April 15 issue of its weekly newspaper, the Silver World.

“Mr. Gotto has returned from Del Norte, and is making preparations for the erection of a building to be used as a brewery,” the Silver World reported. “He has purchased the outfit formerly owned by M. Brown, at Milton, which is now on its way in here. Mr. Gotto says he will be able to supply the demand for beer by the first of May.”

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There were at least five breweries in Denver in 1876, according to a city directory, and several others were scattered throughout the territory. Kegs sold for $3 apiece in the capital city, where saloonkeepers had recently colluded to fix the price of a glass of beer at 10 cents instead of 5.

Taxes on beer and other alcoholic beverages were a major source of revenue for the federal government at the time. Brewers were responsible for paying excise taxes at a rate of $1 per 31-gallon barrel, made official by a revenue stamp affixed to its rubber stopper, so that it was destroyed when the barrel was tapped.

Skirting the law could result in charges like the one brought against George Buechner, who in April 1876 was indicted in federal court in Denver for “vending beer from an unstamped keg,” though he was promptly acquitted.

The beers of choice for Americans in the 1870s were typically lagers, introduced by German-American immigrants over the previous two decades. The Colorado Territory had its fair share of German-born brewers, including Philip Zang, who’d purchased the Rocky Mountain Brewing Company in 1871, and would later rename it after himself. Joseph E. Bates, a wealthy industrialist and two-time Denver mayor, owned the rival Denver Brewing Company.

With the nation’s 100th birthday fast approaching, Bates’ company, in a notice to saloonkeepers on April 10, 1876, announced a commemorative beer that the editors of the Rocky Mountain News, supplied with a complimentary keg a few weeks later, would proclaim a “peculiar and superior beverage.”

“Our Centennial Bock Beer is now ready for shipment. You will please forward your orders immediately, so we can ship it in time to reach you by the first day of May,” the company said. “Please return immediately all the empty kegs and half-barrels you have on hand.”

Advances in pasteurization, bottling and rail transportation would soon dramatically change how beer in the U.S. was manufactured and consumed, but breweries in the centennial year still tended to be small operations that wholesaled their product to local saloons. Most brewers doing business in the Colorado Territory in 1876 wouldn’t last long — with one very notable exception.

“We had occasion to visit the Golden Brewery on Saturday last,” reported the Golden Transcript in March, “and were pleased to learn from Mr. Coors, one of the proprietors, that the establishment is doing a rushing business. A large quantity of beer is being continually shipped to Denver and the mountain towns.”

Selected sources

• Shikes, Jonathan. “Denver Beer: A History of Mile High Brewing”