Miller Brewing Company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Miller Brewing Company | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Location | Milwaukee, Wisconsin United States |
| Owner | SABMiller |
| Year opened | 1855 |
| Active Beers | |
| Miller Genuine Draft | Pale lager |
| Miller High Life | Pale lager |
| Miller Lite | Light beer |
| Milwaukee's Best | Pale lager |
Miller Brewing Company is a large American beermaker based in Milwaukee. It is owned by SABMiller. Miller owns breweries in Albany, Georgia; Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin; Eden, North Carolina; Fort Worth, Texas; Irwindale, California; Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Trenton, Ohio.[1]
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[edit] History
Miller Brewing Company was founded in 1855 by Frederick Miller when he purchased the small Plank-Road Brewery. The brewery's location in the Miller Valley provided easy access to raw materials produced on nearby farms.
On September 19, 1966, the conglomerate W.R. Grace & Co. agreed to buy 53% of Miller from Mrs. Lorraine John Mulberger (a granddaughter of Fred Miller who objected to alcohol) and her family.
On June 12, 1969 Philip Morris bought Miller from W.R. Grace for $130 million, outbidding PepsiCo.
On 30 May 2002, it was acquired by South African Breweries from Philip Morris (now Altria) for $3.6 billion worth of stock and $2 billion in debt, to form SABMiller; with Philip Morris retaining a 36% share at that time, with voting rights of 24.99%.
On August 14, 2006, Miller Brewing announced it had completed the purchase of Sparks and Steel Reserve brands from McKenzie River Corporation for $215 million cash.[2] Miller had been producing both products prior to this purchase.[3]
[edit] Current brands
[edit] Miller family
- Miller Lite—See the article at Miller Lite.
- Miller Lite Ice—A limited distribution ice beer valued for low bitterness and low hangover frequency, as well as for the naturally higher ABV content (5.5%) of an ice beer. In this form it is now only found in select markets in Michigan and perhaps other states, but reports are also that it is now rebranded as one of the Icehouse beers.
- Miller Genuine Draft—Miller Genuine Draft was introduced in 1986 as the original cold filtered packaged draft beer, which means that the beer is not heat pasteurized. Miller uses an exclusive cold-filtered process that prevents some of the beer's flavor from being heated away. MGD received the gold medal in the American-style Premium Lager category at the 1999 World Beer Cup. It also received the silver medal at the 2003 American Beer Festival. It was originally introduced as "Miller High Life Genuine Draft", but the "High Life" part of the name was soon dropped. MGD is actually made from the same recipe as Miller High Life, with a different treatment. High Life is heat pasteurized after packaging and MGD is filtered before packaging.[citation needed] It was developed to give High Life drinkers the same taste in a can or bottle as they found in non-pasteurized kegs. It has 4.7% ABV.
- Miller Genuine Draft Light—A version of the Miller Genuine Draft but with a 4.2% ABV, approximately 3/4 of the calories, and approximately half of the carbohydrates.
- Miller High Life—This beer was put on the market in 1903 and is Miller Brewing's oldest brand. Miller High Life can be considered the forerunner of the modern American lager beers. High Life is grouped under the pilsner category of beers, although it has slightly less alcohol than European pilsners, at 4.7% ABV. The prevailing slogan on current packaging is "The Champagne of Beers", which is an adaptation of its long standing slogan "The Champagne of Bottled Beers". It was originally available in miniature champagne bottles and was one of the premier high end beers in the country for many years. After languishing as a blue collar economy beer for decades, High Life is repositioning itself as a mainstream beer and going after a younger, more sophisticated drinker. Current marketing the beer with the tagline, "Savor The High Life". Except for a brief period in the 1990s, High Life bottles have always been quite distinctive, as they have a bright gold label and are made of a clear glass that has a tapered neck like a champagne bottle. High Life has brought back its "Girl in the Moon" logo, which features by today's standards a modestly dressed young lady that, by legend, is company founder Frederick Miller's granddaughter. In addition to the 12oz bottle configurations (6, 12, 18, 24, and 30 packs), it is also available in single serve 22oz, 32oz, and 40oz bottles. A recent surge in popularity is making the 7.5oz "pony" bottle 8 packs more and more available. It can also be found in cans in 12oz, as well as 16 and 24 ounce "tall boys". High Life beat out 17 other contestants to take home the gold medal in "American-style Lagers" at the 2002 World Beer Cup.
- Miller High Life Light—A version of the Miller High Life but approximately the same nutritional content as the Miller Genuine Draft Light.
- Miller 1855 Celebration Lager—The 1855 Celebration Lager was released in November 2005 to recognize the 150th anniversary of Miller Brewing. It is only available for a limited time.
- Sharp's—Miller's non-alcoholic beer.
- Frederick Miller Classic Chocolate Lager—a beer for the holiday season released October through December in Wisconsin, Chicago, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Indianapolis and Valparaiso/northwest Indiana. It is is brewed with six different malts, including chocolate and dark chocolate malts. [4]
- Milwaukee's Best—Miller's economy label. Popularly known as 'Milwaukee's Beast', or simply as 'the Beast'.
- Milwaukee's Best Ice—sometimes referred to as 'Beast Ice.' It is popular among students for its low price and 5.9% ABV.
[edit] Hamm's Family
Miller have bought up the rights to the Hamm's Brewery brands.
- Hamm's Beer
- Hamm's Golden Draft
- Hamm's Special Light
[edit] Plank Road Brewery Family
- Icehouse 5.0
- Icehouse 5.5 - Icehouse is an ice lager and was the winner of the 2003 Gold Medal for American-Style Specialty Lager at the Great American Beer Festival, and also won the American-Style Ice Lager Gold Cup of the 1996 and 1998 World Beer Cup competitions.
- Red Dog - Although popular during the mid to late 1990s, Red Dog faded into near-obscurity after the turn of the century. However, since 2005 it has been making a comeback of sorts, returning to stores.
- South Paw Light - The light version of Red Dog. Essentially the same taste with 110 calories versus over 150 for Red Dog. 5.0% alcohol. The mascot was a kangaroo.
