You are talking to a man who loves his MillerCoors products. For a year my go to cheaper beer was Miller Lite. Now it's Coors Light. I hate people who bash Coors Light. It's perfect, down right perfect with wings.
But the world is moving away from wings and beer. People are buying spirits now (I buy both bourbon and beer in vast quantities, but others I guess don't) and MillerCoors would like to gain back some of the drinkers its lost in the past decade. The attempt at that is Miller Fortune and Bloomberg had an inside look at the story behind it.
At MillerCoors LLC headquarters inChicago, brewmaster Manny Manuele pulls a black bottle of the company’s newest beer from an icy bucket.
He pops the cap with a showy reverence honed by countless tastings during a 35-year career. This time, rather than tilt the brew into a tall pint glass, he pours the amber brew into a stubby rocks glass usually reserved for whiskey neat.
Ooohh. Shiny.
The rocks glass is intended to set Miller Fortune apart the same way the orange slice has made Blue Moon one of the company’s fastest-growing brews.
Oh. Shiny.
Miller Fortune’s homage to spirits may end with a rocks glass, but it starts with the bottle. During its 18-month development period, the brand’s marketers shunned the traditional rounded beer bottle shape for a more angular design, which resembles a Smirnoff vodka bottle. The marketers say it evokes a guy in a tapered, athletic-cut suit — designed to stand out among other bottles on a store shelf or busy bar.
Oh. Okay. I know when I'm looking at a beer to pick out, I certainly decide based on which of the bottles looks like a dude a chick would want to bang. But what's inside of it? Well, MillerCoors spirit animal in the endeavor (did you catch that pun?) are the bourbon brewers of Kentucky.
“We asked, ’How would Jack Daniels or Maker’s Mark do a beer and why?’” said David Kroll [head of innovation.].
Mass produce it and rely on a massive advertising campaign and the ignorance of the American public to sell it? I mean, have you seen those fucking Maker's Mark commercials? So what sets this beer apart?
Fortune is a golden lager brewed in part with Cascade hops to give it a citrusy bite and caramel malt to impart an amber hue. Bloomberg got an exclusive early tasting. Developed with guys aged 21 to 27 in mind, the flavor is moderately bitter with hints of sweetness, resting somewhere between a craft beer and a light lager. The flavors will emerge even more as the rocks glass warms in the hand, Manuele said.
“They are going to hold a beer glass in a way they haven’t held a beer glass before,” he said.
Yes, they are going to hold it with a ROBOTIC DEATH CLAW supplied along with the bottle. Or not? That was just a metaphor? Oh.
Anyways, best of luck to MillerCoors. I know I'll be trying it. I love trying new things.
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