Breckenridge Vanilla Porter

Even as much as I have gotten sick of the giants of the beer industry, I have to give them credit.

They are very effective marketers (even when they run stupid campaigns like this.)

They make it a point to add gimmicks to their products, and they convince people that they make high quality beer.  

Breckenridge Brewery in Denver is launching a hilarious new ad campaign that's poking fun at the major beer companies (well, mostly at MillerCoors).

You can check out the commercials here.

We've got a bottle of Avalanche Ale in the collection, but we drank the six pack of it months ago and I didn't get a review done, so Phin and I decided that we'd head over to the liquor store and grab something else by them.  We went with the SummerBright Ale.  I downed my half of the six pack last night and sprinted to the liquor store 15 minutes before it closed to grab a six pack of their Vanilla Porter.  I had read some good things about it on Beerit, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

One of the things that I read about it was that it was a great dessert beer. That had me a little nervous, as I thought it'd wind up being a Summer Shandy-like. Fortunately, there are still qualities that I'd associate with beer in the brew, and in my opinion the combo of the sweet flavor in a porter really works.  Maybe for people who are bigger fans of the style, this one doesn't work, but I like it. 

I give it a B+.

Vanilla Porter on Beer Advocate
Vanilla Porter on RateBeer
Breckenridge's take on Vanilla Porter

Have you ever had Breckenridge Vanilla Porter? Agree with my take on it? Let us know in the comments!

The marketing major in me just HAS to speak out

It seems like last night's post got me revved up to trash Miller.

Am I the only one who thinks the latest campaign for Miller Lite is ridiculous?

This is what I'm talking about:



First of all, if a bartender insulted me (no matter how strange my clothes were), she wouldn't get a tip, and she'd probably get a complaint against her.

Second, I can't actually figure out which beer they're saying Miller Lite has more taste than. Obviously, it'd seem they're aiming at Bud Light, but I don't think Miller actually has more taste than Bud.

Don't get me wrong, I think that the additional "taste" in Bud Light is awful and if I had to pick one of the two it'd be Miller. But Budweiser has more taste. The only beer I can think of with less taste than Miller is Keystone, and that's another MillerCoors product.

Thoughts on this Miller campaign? Got another beer ad you can't stand? Let us know in the comments