He was apprenticed at age 13 to the book and stationery store of Andrea and Company in nearby Ruhrort from November 1860 until June 1862.
In July 1862, Adolph was apprenticed for a three-year period at Kronen, a brewery owned by Heinrich Wenker in Dortmund.
He became foreman of John Stenger's brewery on August 11, 1869, in Naperville, Illinois, about 35 miles west of Chicago.
He worked in Denver as a gardener for a month, and on May 1, 1872, he purchased a partnership in the bottling firm of John Staderman.
On April 12, 1879, Adolph Coors married Louisa Webber, the daughter of the superintendent of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad maintenance shops.
At the time, Transcript editor George West wrote, "Miss Coors is a native Golden girl and proud of it.
The international shipping of Coors beer, beginning in Korea in 1908, possibly was related to the family's presence there.
Adolph Jr., Grover, and Herman all graduated from Cornell University, and returned to Denver to take positions in the family operations.
Bertha, who became an accomplished equestrienne and safari hunter, married Harold S. Munroe on January 8, 1911, at the Coors Mansion.
Herman Coors married Janet Ferrin and remained in Golden, working in the family porcelain factory.
Adolph Coors is known to have had at least two siblings, a sister and a younger brother, William Kuhrs, who was born in Dortmund, Germany, in 1849.
Following further in his brother's footsteps, William married Louisa's sister Mary in 1881, and 10 years later moved to Denver, where he had charge of the Coors interests in that city.