Miller Lite

My historyEssentially the first mainstream light beer, Miller Lite has a colorful history. After its first inception as "Gablinger's Diet Beer" the recipe was literally given by the inventor of the light beer process to one of Miller's competing breweries, Chicago's Meister Brau, which came out with the Meister Brau "Lite" brand in the early 70's. When Miller acquired Meister Brau the recipe was reformulated and relaunched as "Miller Lite" in 1975, and heavily marketed using masculine pro sports players and other macho figures of the day in an effort to sell to the key beer-drinking male demographic. Miller's approach worked where the two previous light beers had failed, and Miller's early production totals of 12.8 million barrels quickly increased to 24.2 million barrels by 1977 as Miller rose to 2nd place in the American brewing marketplace.