# What was the deal with Coors beer and boot legging? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 3, 2002, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-coors-beer-and-boot-legging/112104 "2002-06-03T06:22:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2002, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-coors-beer-and-boot-legging/112104/1 "2002-06-03T06:22:00Z")
I remember being a kid in the very early 70’s and collecting beer cans. Getting a Coors can was a big deal because, as everyone knew for a fact, it was illegal to have Coors beer east of the Mississippi. Remember _Smokey and the Bandit_? that movie was all about Coors. So why was it illegal to have Coors east of the Mississippi? Was it the government doing it’s job and protecting the citizenry from it’s horrible, moldy taste? or were there other, less justified reasons? ---
**Author:** ![TonyD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e274bd/32.png) [@TonyD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonyD)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2002, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-coors-beer-and-boot-legging/112104/2 "2002-06-03T08:28:58Z")
I don’t think it was ever illegal…Coors just had a limited distribution at that time and was only available in a few western states. As for Smokey and the Bandit…I thought he was being pursued originally because he had picked up the sheriff’s son’s fiancée. ---
**Author:** ![Squish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Squish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squish)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2002, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-coors-beer-and-boot-legging/112104/3 "2002-06-03T09:44:26Z")
It wasn’t a case of bootlegging, it was a case of illegal distributing. Why is drinking Coors like having sex in a canoe? ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2002, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-coors-beer-and-boot-legging/112104/4 "2002-06-03T12:52:19Z")
I imagine there wasn’t a legal way for a liquor store outside of Coors’ official distribution zone to acquire and sell the stuff. However, lots of individuals brought it with them for personal use and to share with friends. Unless they had a quantity in excess of certain states’ limits for personal use (said limits being mainly concerned with the state getting tax revenue), there was nothing illegal about that. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2002, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-coors-beer-and-boot-legging/112104/5 "2002-06-03T13:18:31Z")
Sigh. Sometimes you just have to be an old timer. Back in my fake ID days, the story was that Coors wasn’t pasteurized. That not only gave it its distinctinve flavor, it also meant the beer would go bad if it was poorly handled or stayed on the shelf too long. As a result, so the story goes, Coors was distributed from its single plant in Golden, Colo. only as far as it could get in one day. In my case that meant Kansas City, and periodic runs from the college crowd over to KC to pick up a case or so for parties. I don’t know what happened later. Did Coors management pasteurize the beer? Did they open a new brewery outside of Colorado? Did they catch on to the concept of refrigerated trucks? Whatever, the original story I heard is just plausible enough to be believable. ---
**Author:** ![femtosecond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@femtosecond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femtosecond)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2002, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-coors-beer-and-boot-legging/112104/6 "2002-06-03T15:02:33Z")
[Why was Coors beer illegal?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=101323) ---
**Author:** ![tramp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@tramp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tramp)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2002, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-coors-beer-and-boot-legging/112104/7 "2002-06-03T16:52:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Squish \* > \*\*It wasn’t a case of bootlegging, it was a case of illegal distributing. > > Why is drinking Coors like having sex in a canoe? \*\* It is fucking near water. Ha.