Turning on the Lite: The Origins of Miller Lite and Light Beer
At the end of this summer, MillerCoors plans to roll out bottles of Miller Lite with the original white labels. The last time such plans were under way was 40 years ago, right before the early 1975 launch of the iconic brand, with that same white label on the bottles, which created a niche that within a generation accounted for almost half of the beer sales in the United States: light beer.
The story of Miller Lite beer and the light beer juggernaut it loosed starts a couple of years before 1974, however, at a dinner in Munich in what was then West Germany.
It was there in 1972 that George Weissman, chairman of Philip Morris, which had recently finished acquiring the Miller Brewing Co. from the heirs of its namesake founder, asked a waiter for recommendations about which beers to drink. He was dieting and didn’t want anything too heavy. The waiter recommended a diat pilsner, a low-sugar lager aimed at people with diabetes (while that first word did translate as “diet” and while it did have fewer carbohydrates, diat pilsner was not necessarily any less caloric than other pilsners given its alcohol content).
A look at Miller Lite bottles through the years.
Weissman ordered one and so did his dinner guest, new Miller Brewing president John Murphy, a longtime in-house attorney at Philip Morris who had once worked in PR in Hollywood. They took a sip.
“There’s room for something like this in America,” Murphy told Weissman.
Miller Lite was born and, with it, light beer.
at last the truth is told . I am a beer can collector and have a lite from meister brau .
So you admit they stole the ideal from light beer from german light beer, and now we have people saying Miller created it.
Quite absurd.
By that token, Miller also created the worlds first beer with absolutely no taste.
Interesting story, considering Meister Brau lite was already being sold in the late 1960’s, and Miller only got it when they bought the Meister Brau Brewery. Of course Miller doesn’t let that stop them from claiming they “invented” it. (One of a couple reasons I DON’T buy any Miller-Coors brands, the other being that they don’t make beer, they make mildly alcoholic barley flavored water.)
what year was the first miller lite electric sign
I’m retired from the beer industry and I remember when Miller Brewing Co. bought the Lite brand from Meister Brau. They did not invent the light beer like they claim in their latest TV ad. Nothing like false advertising.
Exactly. And Meister Brau came from Peter Hand Brewing. They couldn’t invent it so they bought it. And inventing subliminal advertising? Really? That’s right up there with Al Gore inventing the Internet. Light beer started in WW2 due to the rationing of sugar. Less sugar, less alcohol.
Peter Hand Light was quite popular in the Lansing MI area in the early 1970s before Miller’s swill came along. Always thought Miller Lite tasted like soapy water.
very true
Old Export Light beer was sold in cone top and later flat top cans by the Cumberland Brewing Co. in Cumberland, MD long before the 60’s.
There’s a story about the President’s of all the beer companies get together for a drink. Each one orders their own company’s light beer. The president of Guiness orders a cola. They all look at him and ask : Why? He says: Well if you guys aren’t going to drink beer then I won’t either!
https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151619135992381&set=a.75334952380.73544.34739562380&type=1&relevant_count=1
Coincidentally, this happens at the same time 3.2 percent beer started it’s demise. One way to produce beer that is ‘lighter’ is to lower the alcohol content.
Thomas Heipp, brew master for Lithia Beer in West Bend,Wi brewed light beer in the 40’s or 50’s
Is Lite the same as it was originally? Also, does the Ft Worth plant better? I remember drinking a Lite from my parents during a fishing trip as a kid. It still taste like I remember. I like American lagers, but all of the cheap brands tasted the same, aka Shaefer, Carlings Black Label, Old Milwakee,Old Style, etc. I want to taste these old lagers like they were originally made. I am a so different today? What did my drinking forefathers drink then?
Carlings Black Label is
Good Beer
I came of age when Meister Brau had the campaign of “just as good as Bud, but without the price.” Milwakees Best came into being, with the slogan,” an old tyme beer with an old tyme taste.” lol Then came Busch and Keystone. Then all of the Heilman Brands disappeared in the decades following. Hell, Schlitz was the biggest beer in my predrinking age. I still remember the steel 16oz tall boys. No one had them for ages afterwards, but they came in aluminum cans later. Schlitz has disappeared. Was Schlitz really much different than today’s Pabst Blue Ribbon?
Miller had a diet beer in the 1960’s didn’ sell well gr bottles
Quart botttles
Lowenbrau, Meister Brau and Lite Beer ( Meister Brau Lite ) brewing rights were sold off to Miller in the late 60’s
HORSE HOCKEY! IT WAS MADE B-4 MILLERS MADE IT. I’M 82 & DRANK IT.