
Wednesday’s ad is for one of the first low-calorie light beers from 1969. Notice the spelling of “Lite” for Meister Brau Lite. That’s significant because Miller bought the brand in part to create Miller Lite, which they later introduced in 1973 I love that Mesiter Brau is trying to link their low-calorie beer to sex from the get go, where refer to it as “Lite … a lusty, full strength premium beer with 1/3 less calories.”

Miller didn’t buy the brewery, they only bought the brands- Lite and Meister Brau. Fred Huber bought the Chicago brewery itself, and ran it under it’s old name “Peter Hand Brewing Co.” with a brand called “Old Chicago” as it’s flagship brand, and, somewhat coincidentally (maybe), an old mid-Western brand called “Braumeister”.
P. Ballantine & Sons, on it’s last legs, even contract-brewed “Meister Brau Lite” for the East Coast market for a time in the late 1960′s. One of those “what if’s” in the brewing industry…
Pingback: A Brief History of Beer in Chicago | Tasty Terminus