In Denver, the Convention Runs on Beer

By Oscar Raymundo

At this year’s Democratic convention, Molson Coors is not only responsible for keeping the cold ones flowing, but it’s also making sure that the wheels at the convention keep turning--literally. The beer company is the 2008 official ethanol provider and has donated all the ethanol needed to fuel the cars being used by the Democrats while in Denver.

Following in the company's mantra: "waste is just a resource out of place,” the Golden Co.-based brewer continues the fermentation process of leftover beer until it gets to be 100% fuel-grade ethanol. As a result, and to fulfill a $1 million commitment to help Denver win the hosting bid, Molson Coors has donated upwards of 400,000 gallons of ethanol that has been mixed with 15% gasoline to create E85, the fuel used by the 300 hybrid and flex-fuel vehicles General Motors has donated to shuttle delegates, Senate members, party leaders and media around the city.

But their sponsorship, although it might sound unusual, is not really a stretch for the beer company. Ethanol is a byproduct of the beer-making process, and since 1996 Molson Coors has extracted it not necessarily as a revenue-generating enterprise but simply to reduce waste. Rick Paine, the co-products revenue manager, calls this process maximizing the spent stream, like the spent yeast that is left over after the beer is brewed. This slurry is condensed into powder that is sold to Purina to make cat food flavoring and then ethanol. Three-fifths of their ethanol is produced this way. The rest comes from packaging: in order not to mix beer streams (Coors with Coors Light for example) the plant has a process of "pushing out" all the beer from the barrels. The beer at the bottom that's left over is deemed low quality and goes into ethanol extraction. You know what they say: one man’s leftover beer is a Democrat’s fuel.