It’s Miller Time!

At home in Wisconsin the refrigerator was always well stocked with the Milwaukee trinity - Schlitz, Miller, and Pabst Blue Ribbon.  This was a time before artisnal and micro-brews captured the beer market nationwide.  My parents always seemed to favor Schlitz or Miller while I was (and still am) a PBR man. 

I like PBR, the “American Style Premium Lager” that I cut my beer drinking teeth on. I was living just outside of Milwaukee the year I reached legal drinking age, and the rest is history.  A couple of years later I was back in Milwaukee for the summer and I worked a night shift. The group I worked with would often get off work at the end of the week to have breakfast at a local IHOP before heading downtown to the Pabst brewery for a tour and “brunch” in the tasting room.  PBR was also our beer of choice when we went to see the Brewers play in the Old County Stadium. PBR and I go way back!   And I still drink it even though it is no longer brewed in Milwaukee.  

Schlitz was supposedly “the beer that made Milwaukee famous” and we were told that “when you are out of Schlitz, you are out of beer.”  It was largest producer of beer in the United States throughout much of the 20th century until it went defunct in 1999, selling most of its assets to the Pabst Brewing Company now based in San Antonio, Texas.  There are still some Schiltz products to be found out there but gone is the beer that made Milwaukee famous.  Pabst left Milwaukee in 1996 leaving Miller Brewing company the last of the brewing triumvirate in the former brewing capital of the United States although full ownership of that company passed to MolsonCoors, based in Chicago, in 2016.  Nothing stays the same . . . except for “Miller Time.”

“Miller time” is from a former advertising campaign for Miller beer.  After a long, hard day of work or play, what could be better than coming home and opening the fridge to find it full of ice cold Miller beer.  This was certainly often the case at home in Milwaukee years ago.  According to a senior marketing director for Miller Lite, "Miller Time is all about those moments when you're hanging out with your real friends and enjoying the great taste of Miller Lite."   Today, however, it has become a colloquial expression meaning one’s work is done and it’s time to relax with a cold beer of choice, especially now that  Miller Lite has moved on to a new marketing campaign slogan – “Beer Me!”

“Miller Time” is also a fond memory of my Grandfather Miller who used this appellation for late afternoon cocktail hour.  I’m not sure how far back this practice extended, but during the 1970s and 1980s, having moved to Florida for retirement, he would frequently have family and friends over for “Miller Time.”   Some might drink beer (I usually drank a Busch brewed across the Bay in Tampa), or perhaps a glass of wine.  My grandfather would always choose a well-prepared dry martini.  These drinks were usually served on the dockside deck over the Anclote River in Tarpon Springs, Florida, frequently while he was cleaning and filleting his daily catch.  It might also include a leisurely cruise down river to the sponge docks in town “to blow the stink off” before dinner. 

I still frequently refer to happy hour drinks as “Miller Time” whether enjoyed at a favorite tavern, at home, or across the street with our neighbors.  There is no question where one should be and what one should be doing when “Miller Time” is announced.  It time to go for the gusto, however you choose to celebrate it.