The Milwaukee Brewers secured the first World Series title in the franchise’s 57-year history this week, and a longtime neighborhood business came up with a novel way to celebrate.
But it just so happens that the business in question is one of the nation’s most prominent beer brands, as well as among the inspirations for the team’s name.
Molson Coors said Thursday that it will offer limited-edition cans of its Miller Lite beer to mark Brewers’ championship. The 4,400 “Clinch Cans” will contain Miller Lite that the company says was being made on Wednesday at 10:13 p.m. Central — the exact time that second baseman Brice Turang threw out the Tampa Bay Rays' Richie Palacios at first to secure the final out of the series.
The cans feature the Brewers’ “ball-in-glove” logo on a blue background with gold lettering — instead of the usual white and dark blue — and the number of cans in the limited-edition run represents the 44 years between the team’s last pennant and this year’s.
Customers who are at least 21 years old can reserve one “Clinch Can” online on a first-come, first-served basis beginning Monday, but they can only receive those reserved cans by picking them up near Molson Coors’ Milwaukee brewery, just down the road from the team’s stadium — the home of Miller Brewing Company since 1855 and the nation’s oldest large-scale brewery.
Miller was among Milwaukee’s “Big Four” brewers that made the city synonymous with the brewing industry— and inspired the nickname of the original Brewers team — in the late 19th century. The nickname was also used by a longtime minor league team in the city before the current franchise moved to Wisconsin in 1970.
Courtney Benedict, Molson Coors’ vice president of marketing for the Miller Lite family of brands, said in a statement that, “as the official beer of our hometown team — one named after beer, no less — we knew we couldn't just sit back and say 'congrats.’"
