Everyone has their own drink preferences, but in general, people lean more toward beer, wine, or a certain spirit. Well, MillerCoors is trying to blur those lines a little bit by creating a beer meant to attract younger drinkers that have been choosing to spend their money on liquor instead of beer.
The new brew, Miller Fortune, will be released across the United States over the next two months. It’s been called a golden lager brewed with Cascade hops to give it a citrusy bite and caramel malt for an amber hue. Moderately bitter in taste, with hints of sweetness, this drink was developed with guys aged 21 to 27 in mind. Miller Fortune also has a higher alcohol content than traditional beers, clocking in at 6.9 percent instead of the average 4 to 5 percent.
In addition to the actual ingredients and taste, the folks at MillerCoors are also focusing in on how Miller Fortune will be served at bars. Instead of handing over a pint glass to patrons, they are pushing for bartenders to pour it into a rocks glass like whiskey would be. They are attempting to brand this product in a very specific way, much like how the orange slice has set Blue Moon apart from other beers. MillerCoors brewmaster Manny Manuele told Bloomberg Businessweek that the flavors are supposed to emerge even more as the rocks glass warms in the hand. “They are going to hold a beer glass in a way they haven’t held a beer glass before,” he said. Sorry Miller but the only thing we want in our rocks glass is whiskey.
The beer will be packaged in jet-black, angular bottles meant to “evoke a guy in a tapered athletic-cut suit,” Bloomberg’s Duane Stanford writes. The label will be black as well, accented with battleship gray, and a bright red scripted “M” for Miller gives the bottle a splash of color. There was initially some trepidation on Miller’s part to venture so far from the traditional beer bottle mold, but they moved forward when testing showed bartenders and consumers overwhelmingly felt the bottle stood out in a crowd. We’re still skeptical.
Will this be the beer industry’s answer to competing with the spirits industry? Probably not. At the end of the day, Miller Fortune is not whiskey and it doesn’t taste like whiskey, even when served in a rocks glass. We do, however, admire them for trying and know that as they lose beer drinkers every year, they obviously can’t give up without a fight.