Beer Blog One
Beer! Beer! Just the word, is happiness to my ear. Greetings, friends! As a “beer connoisseur”, per say, I find joy in trying all different sorts of beers. From Stouts and India Pale Ales (IPA) to Pilsners and Porters, there isn’t a beer on the face of this Earth that I wouldn’t be willing to try. As I make my way through the bubbly world of beer, I’d like to share my take on taps, bottles, breweries and virtually everything beer with you. So, where can I start? Hmm, how about by sharing with you where my love for beer first began. I had my very first beer last September, when I turned 21 years old. Well, okay… maybe I had a beer or two before then. I was born and raised in Wisconsin, after all. Although Wisconsin is considered the Dairy State, any proud Wisconsinite would be able to tell you that beer could rival that nickname. It would be more than fair to say that my love for beer is due in part to my citizenship to Wisconsin. After all, I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, right next to the world-renowned Miller Brewing Company. Beer comes from all over the world and has been brewed using various techniques, tools and ingredients as far back as 3,500 BC! With over 5,000 years of history, I will have plenty of information to share on the wonderful world of beer. I’d like to start by paying homage to my birthplace and the place that makes me proud of where so many great beers come from today, Milwaukee.
As I had mentioned, I was born in Milwaukee and would go on to spend the next 18 years of my life living there. The city is spackled with brewers, some of whom are smaller microbreweries specializing in craft beers and others who are making a name for themselves outside of Wisconsin. However, there is no bigger name in the modern beer business than the Miller Brewing Company.
To provide some history on how Miller Brewing became the company it is today, I’ll start with the companies’ foundation that dates all the way back to 1855. Miller Brewing Company was founded by one Mr. Frederick Miller. Frederick Miller had emigrated from Germany in 1854, bringing with him a special brewer’s yeast that would set him apart from all the other breweries. Like most businesses, Frederick Miller started small by purchasing a local Milwaukee brewery named Plank Road Brewery. The brewery was located in an area called the Miller Valley. Due in part to Frederick’s last name, as well as the location in Miller Valley, the Plank Road Brewery was renamed and the Miller Brewing Company was born. The Miller Brewing Company would then go on to remain in the Frederick Miller family for over 100 years until the eventual sale to W. R. Grace and Company in 1966. The brewery swapped ownership yet again in 1969, 2002 and most recently in 2015 when Anheuser-Busch Inbev reached a full agreement to purchase the company for a whopping $107 billion dollars. The 2015 agreement was the most recent sale of the Miller Brewing Company, but it is important to note that the company merged with fellow beer behemoth MolsonCoors on October 10, 2016. When Frederick Miller founded the company in 1855, Miller Brewing Company had one facility with a staff of 25 employees who brewed 300 barrels of beer. Today, Miller Brewing Company operates: six breweries, five manufacturing plants, four distributorships, a glass bottle production facility, a label factory and several gas wells which employ roughly 9,500 people. Altogether, the company now brews more than 40 million barrels of beer per year. No, that’s not a typo, more than 40 million barrels of beer per year! This makes Miller Brewing Company the second largest brewery in the United States. I think it’s safe to say Frederick Miller would be proud of where his company is today (well, apart from his great granddaughter selling off the company in 1966).
*Miller High Life Logo*
Now the fun part, beer! MillerCoors (Joint name of Miller Brewing and Molson Coors) offers more than 50 beers. You might have heard of a few, such as: Miller Lite, Blue Moon, Leinenkugel’s, Redd’s, Coors, Miller 64, Red Dog, Smith and Forge, Sol Cerveza, Steel Reserve and Olde English 800. While I could go on and on about the many great beers MillerCoors has to offer, I’d like to stick to the original beers that the Miller Brewing Company offered prior to the merger in 2016.
One of the more notable beers you might have heard of (especially the college kids) is Hamm’s and Hamm’s Special Light. While I do admit it’s not my favorite Miller product, it is one of the best beers in terms of bang-for-your-buck. A 30-can case of Hamm’s can run as little as $10-$12 dollars if you go to the right stores. With a light flavor that goes down easy, you could find yourself ten Hamm’s in by the end of the night. The best part? That could cost you as little as $3 or $4 dollars, talk about efficiency!
Hamm’s might not be your first choice, and that’s okay! Miller Brewing Company also offers classics with much more flavor like Mickey’s. Mickey’s is a fine malt beverage with moderate bitterness and lots and lots of malts. One of the neatest things about Mickey’s is the innovative 12-ounce “grenade” bottle they can be found in. You may have seen a grenade-style bottle before, and that style all originated with Mickey’s! In a world of standard cans, you can keep it classy with a Mickey’s grenade bottle. However, if you’re looking for a little less class and a little more fun, virtually every gas station in the Milwaukee Area will offer a Mickey’s 40-ounce bottle. The 40-ounce bottles are a nice, cheap snag but I wouldn’t recommend making Mickey’s your first choice for drinking games like “Edward 40-Hands” (A game in which you tape a 40-ounce beer to each hand and begin drinking). This is because Mickey’s contains so many malts which will fill you up much faster than light beers like Hamm’s.
*Mickey’s famous 12oz. grenade-style bottle and 40oz. bottle*
Miller Brewing Company also has products you may not have heard of before, such as Miller Fortune. This product was brewed in lesser amounts than other Miller products which is why you may not have heard of it. Another reason why this beer is often unheard of is because production has come to a halt. There are still select stores, bars and restaurants that offer Miller Fortune so if you’re lucky enough to come across the jet-black Miller Fortune bottle, I’d give it a try! Part of what makes this beer so unique is that it was brewed with caramel malts and cascade hops. The malts and hops create the perfect balance for a smooth swallow, but this product is known to follow with a minor “bite” as it has an alcohol by volume (ABV) of 6.9%, a bit higher than standard light beers.
I’ve always been a huge fan of the Miller Brewing Company and part of the reason I’m such a big fan is because they brew my all-time favorite beer. I decided to save the best (in my opinion) for last. Miller High Life. The “Champagne of Beers”. Miller High Life is a classic American-style lager that dates all the way back to 1903. High Life was launched to be Miller’s flagship beer and to this day serves as a staple to the Miller name. I’m not sure if it’s the classic glass bottles or the fact that they use the original 1903 recipe, but something about this beer makes you feel authentic. In my opinion and in many others, there is nothing classier than a Miller High Life in a bottle which is why so many people gave it the nickname it has today, the Champagne of Beers.
*Miller High Life’s Iconic “Lady In The Moon”*
As a beer lover, I am very fortunate to have been born and raised in Milwaukee. Milwaukee is home to so many great beers and the Miller Brewing Company products I’ve mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg for Milwaukee brews. The Miller Brewing Company paved the way for dozens of other brewers hoping to make a living doing what they love in Milwaukee. Even if beer isn’t your style, you’ll find the Miller name everywhere around the Milwaukee community. One of the most iconic instances is on the home field of the Milwaukee Brewers’. This major league baseball team plays home games in Miller Park, a renowned stadium that is positioned just three miles away from the original Miller Brewery that Frederick Miller first opened in 1855.
I’d like to thank each of you for taking the time to read my first blog and if you’re interested in some of the resources I used to create this blog or just want to know more about the Miller Brewing Company, please see the links I have posted below. Cheers!
https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/economics-business-and-labor/businesses-and-occupations/miller-brewing?hashedNID=#1G22840500106
https://www.millercoors.com/beers/great-beers
https://www.millercoors.com/breweries/miller-brewing-company/brands-we-brew