Miller Lite to Release New Bottle.

Cost consciousness is one explanation, yet if they were to produce a "premium" product which sells for more than their standard beers, then any additional production costs could be recouped and then some by the premium pricing which they could command for it.

After all that's what companies are all about, increasing their margins. If they are unable to command higher pricing then there would be a problem, but as can be seen with beers such as Blue Moon and Shock Top they seem to be perfectly able to command higher retail prices for a product which is seen as more upscale by the consumer.

It's a question I've been thinking about quite a bit however, especially since the two largest macro companies in Sweden have started to put out crafty and more robust lager beers which are actually really tasty. Beers having 31-33 IBUs, dry hopped with American hops a la cascade and amarillo, packaged in more craft-like packaging. One of them has also produced a couple of more traditional pilsner beers which are truly excellent, one of the pilsners was slightly over 30IBUs and hopped with Saaz while the other has 37 IBUs hopped with German hops (neither of them dry hopped). This summer Carlsberg Sweden will release a new beer called Bomble Bee 17 which is dry hopped with Saaz and Willamette hops, 4.7% abv, with 33IBU. They are calling it a "hop-struck pilsner".



So those are some examples of what's going on over here. There are differences between the Swedish beer market and the American one though which can serve to explain this imo:

• High taxes which restrict the ability of the Swedish brewers to command higher prices beyond a certain point which restricts margins
• A budget-beer arms race that started in the 90s which has made several lower-priced low-margin beers into topsellers, creating a desire from these companies to find a profitable new product segment
• A limited number of product launches in the monopoly creating fierce competition between the biggest companies to match successful product launches by their competitor
• With the increase in craft beer sales there has finally emerged a market segment which enables them to sell beers with improved margins if they play their cards right

Additionally since the standard Swedish lager is all-malt and has 20ish IBUs it's not as much of a stretch for these companies to produce a beer with a bitterness elevated to 33 and dry hopping them, compared to a company like MillerCoors which has to go from a below 10IBU adjunct light beer to something similar. Or ABInbev, perhaps it's not so strange then that they end up with a slightly maltier 15 IBU lager a la Black Crown and not a 33 IBU all-malt lager with a good dosing of hops either late boil or dry hopped, they can only jump so far in one go.

 

Some dude got paid a McDickLoad of money to come up with that bottle shape.

Hurts, doughnut?

 

Who gives a shit...

 

Miller Lite=Quantity not Quality

I guess my point was not gotten, Miller produces it's beer as a product to be consumed in quantities as a mass apeal beer any new bottle design is pointless and is only advertised to gain popularity among the uneducated beer drinking community . Its flavor and bottle design need not even be discussed on beer advocate.