SABMiller Taps Australian Craft Beer Market

Or so they say.

Upon further investigation, this so-called craft brewer "in American parlance" doesn't seem to be making compelling beers. As if you couldn't tell by the names of the beers that Miller found them to be making - "Premium Lager", "Premium Light", "Traditional Pilsner", and "Blonde". All the types of beers that Bud Miller Coors (I guess this is just MillerCoors) can relate to. Now to be fair, the Traditional Pilsner gets a bit of love from the BeerAdvocates, but the rest are as highly rated as a B-movie being reviewed by a dozen stodgy grandmothers.

It is just funny what Miller considers to be a premium brand. I guess they must be referring to "premium" in the sense of an elevated cost or profit margin, not "premium" meaning of a higher than average quality.

One more note on the concept of premium: they note at the end of the story that this Pacific Beverages (are they a distributor or what?) has a bunch of "premium" spirits brands such as: Jim Beam, Canadian Club, Remy Martin, Cointreau, The Famous Grouse, and Absolut. I don't know about The Famous Grouse, and I don't know much about Cointreau or Remy Martin, but I can say for certain that Canadian Club, Absolut, and Jim Beam are not exactly premium brands. To me, they are the Bud Miller Coors of the spirits world. Especially CC - that stuff is really bad. Absolut isn't much better (although they have much better marketing). Jim Beam at least has a few premium lines, I think, like aged or special reserve blends or something like that.

Man from reading this Brew Blog, it just seems like the kind folks over at Miller are just living in a totally different reality than I am.

So which reality are you living in? Give me a comment and let me know - do you think a "Premium Light" sounds like a craft brand?

Miller's Brew Blog

A while back, as I was signing up for feeds from beer blogs and things, I got signed up on Brew Blog. They're brought to us by Miller, and it's funny to me the things that they talk about. Today was really good.

It's talking about how Miller Lite is revamping its packaging to capitalize on the positive momentum (presumably Miller Chill). Maybe it's just me, but shouldn't the focus be on the beer, not on the packaging? While I won't dispute that packaging is important, it's what's inside that counts.

I guess that's just how the big guys roll. They are marketing and advertising machines, not really innovative high-flavor product machines.

Oh yeah, too... scrolling down to the previous one, it is Miller's new "sharper, bolder, faster" thing. Well they can't be talking about the beer. That is the same bland stuff as always. No, it is their corporate attitude. It just sounds like they should be making microchips or cars or something. Talk like this reminds me of Ford. But then on the other hand, what a car looks like is a big part of the product.

Miller is funny.