Miller Brewing, now MillerCoors, is taking another shot at the premium beer market. Starting this week it will be selling a Peruvian lager, Cusqueña, in Rhode Island.
A MillerCoors press release described Cusqueña as "made using the finest quality Saaz hops and pure glacier water from a source at 18,000 feet in the Andes Mountains. The result is a full-flavored European-style lager with Latin American flair."
Meanwhile, the Miller Lite Brewers Collection, an attempt to mix craft and light beers, is all but dead. A spokesman in Milwaukee said the brewers collection -- a blonde ale, a wheat and amber--- had been "suspendend" in August and there are no plans to restart it.
You might remember that back in February Baltimore, along with Charlotte, Minneapolis and San Diego, were chosen as test markets for the brewers collecton. Baltimore beer drinkers as well as sippers in the other test cities said no thanks to the lite-craft marriage.
The introduction of the Peruvian lager is, the MillerCoors spokesman said, an attempt to capture the "Latinization" of the American beer market. The brewery's hope is that the Peruvian beer will follow the path of Miller Chill, which was well received in ethnic communities then gained mainstream popularity.
In other words, in Baltimore we aren't likely to see Cusqueña unless it sells well in Rhode Island.
My questions: Has anyone had this Peruvian beer?
How would you describe the Latinization of American beers?
Does it go beyond putting a lime on a lager? Are the ingredients in the Latin beers different than other beers?
