Dead For The Mountains

May 30th, 2006 at 08:14am Michael Conniff 2

I never had one and now I never will.

I’m talking about an Aspen Edge beer, the late low-carb concoction that bore only a passing resemblance to our fair city. Not that my aversion was to the low-carb thing: the only beer that passes my lips is non-alcoholic, so Aspen Edge was a non-starter with me for that reason alone. But even as a newcomer to the local scene—with an Aspen locals content of just 2.75 years—I found myself more than mildly offended  by a beer that took a piece of our heart without paying anything back.

An Aspen nutrition bar or some kind of supplement would have been different because it would have at least acknowledged what we’re all about. But low-carbs are low-rent, and there’s nothing cheap about living here. Low-carbs were also a fad tied to Dr. Atkins, and both he and the fad are dead. Coors merely appropriated the Aspen brand in a way that was not even nominally authentic, and so I was not even slightly surprised when the beer was sent to “the dustbin of history,” to quote a Denver paper.
"Aspen Edge is being wholeheartedly embraced by distributors and retailers across the nation," said Coors Brewing chief marketing officer Ron Askew at the time of the launch. "This is not only based on anecdotal evidence, but also distributor orders that were higher than forecasted when Coors first launched Aspen Edge in March."

Go on the Coors web site and “Aspen Edge” the brand is long gone, though a Fact Sheet from the archives contains this definition: “Aspen Edge™ is a low carb light lager crafted by Coors Master Brewers using a unique blend of caramel and pale malts for perfectly balanced flavor. The rich color and taste of Aspen Edge is the result of a proprietary brewing process developed by Coors Master Brewers. The brew is currently available at retail outlets nationwide in bottles, cans and kegs. Aspen Edge is 4.1 percent alcohol by volume per 12 ounce serving.”

The caramel must have done it.

“Removing carbs while still brewing a quality beer is a delicate art,” said Coors Master Brewer Keith Villa. “Lighter beers are already more complex than their dark counterparts
because there’s no heavy flavor to hide behind. A relatively easy way to reduce carbs is to simply water down regular beer, but that wasn’t an acceptable answer for us.”

No—with all due respect to the Bob Villa of beer, the only acceptable answer was to glom onto what Aspen stands for and to hold on for the ride. It’s not that Coors didn’t try. They saturated Aspen Edge pretty much everywhere--7-11, Albertson's, Circle K, Kroger, Safeway, Wal-Mart—everywhere but Aspen that is. When the beer finally launched you could get it from Texas to Maine—but not in Aspen.

"We always are thrilled when we can leverage our Rocky Mountain heritage," said a spokesperson when the beer was announced.

Yeah, right. Coors rode the low-carb bubble and you might say the company got what it deserved: a shot from the marketplace upside the head. Those kind of things can happen to low carbs at a high altitude.

Entry Filed under: Aspen, Nightlife, Business