In a crosstown collaboration between two Milwaukee brewing giants, Miller High Life and Lakefront Brewery have created a new brew together that will be released on Nov. 1.
The Juicy Life is a juicy lager, which means it’s a lager that displays some fruity notes or character that are derived from hops.
This example uses experimental HBC 586 and Sabro – two extremely citrus and tropical fruit-forward hops – that give this lager a lovely dose of papaya and mango flavors.
The hazy beer is at least the fourth for which Miller High Life has teamed with a craft brewer.
In 2016, Miller High Life paired with Chicago’s Off Color Brewing for Eeek!, a wild ale; three years later the Molson-owned Terrapin, a craft brewery in Athens, Georgia, collaborated with Miller on Hoppin’ Bubbly brut IPA; and last year, the macro brewer worked with Philadelphia’s Evil Genius to create Brunch So Hard Orange and Mango IPA.
“They approached us,” says Lakefront Brand Manager Michael Stodola. “We started chitchatting back in February, March. Just talking about styles and what we wanted to do, and we had some ideas and they had some ideas.
“So we went back and forth, started talking about what we make, what they make, and how we can find common ground. We're really good at lagers, and the craft juicy thing is still out there. They're good at lagering. So, ultimately, we came up with this juicy lager idea.”
The hope was to have it ready for release today, Sept. 1, but for various reasons that’s been pushed back two months.
Stodola says Lakefront has never done a juicy lager before, though it has made at least two juicy IPAs: Hazy Rabbit and Juicify.
“The idea of a juicy lager seemed kind of funky, kind of cool,” he says.
Miller High Life’s R&D brewer Carol Walker did a test batch at the innovation brewery at Miller Brewing and brought it to Lakefront, which wanted to boost the juiciness.
So Lakefront’s head brewer Luther Paul and Walker went back to the Champagne of Beers Region to create a second test batch, which had more and different hops than the initial attempt.
That one – which I tasted today – was a success and will serve as the blueprint for the batch that Paul will brew later this month at Lakefront Brewery.
It will then be lagered for about four weeks before being bottled and sent to retail.
Stodola says Lakefront will brew 3,000 cases – or case-equivalent, because some will be kegged for bars – and most of it will be put into 12-ounce bottles.
“It will probably be around for a month or a month and a half,” says Stodola.
So, if you’re interested in this fun and tasty collab from two Milwaukee brewing giants, don’t hesitate.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
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