Steve Kurowski, operations director for the Colorado Brewer’s Guild, says Coors Brewing Company is a big reason why the city of Denver has exploded in terms of breweries opening their doors in recent years.

“We didn’t have to get rid of a lot of the archaic prohibition laws,” Kurowski explains. “Coors was really responsible for keeping our laws friendly before craft beer. They made a point to say, ‘We’re a brewery. We need these laws.’ So when these microbreweries opened, it was a similar set of rules they had to deal with. They set the precedent in a lot of ways.”

Having favorable legislation in Colorado has put the industry in protection mode as opposed to being forced to be proactive about loosening prohibition-era regulations. The relative ease in which one is able to open a brewery has produced different problems in Denver, though. For one, the rapid maturation of a relatively small market that has allowed little room for growth in sales and in physical space. It’s an especially prudent problem as location could just be a factor in whether or not a brewery succeeds.