Recently Miller Lite has been running a series of “Man Up” Beer commercials. All of them seem to suggest if you’re not drinking Miller Lite you’re not a “Real Man” and need to “man up” and order a Miller Lite. Clearly Miller is trying to imply that drinking other kinds of beers is for sissies. Order something else and you risk having your masculinity questioned by a pretty lady, and who wants that? Sure it’s funny to see these guys prance around with a lower back tattoo, but how many men who care how their beer tastes drink Miller Lite?

Almost every macro-brewery has at one point or another laid claim to being the coldest brew at the store or on tap. We’ve all seen in countless TV commercials and Super Bowl spots where advertisers victoriously proclaim that their beer is always Ice Brewed or Cold Brewed or Frost Brewed or Glacier Brewed or some-other-cold-sounding-word brewed.

Coors Light with their recent “Our beer tastes like licking the Rockies” advertising shtick, is particularly guilty of this, just take a look at this ad featuring former NFL coach Bill Parcells. (Starts around the :30 mark)

Cold Activated Bottles. Provided by MillerCoors LLC

34 degrees sounds pretty cold, right? Pretty impressive maybe? Let’s do some fact checking with John Palmer, author of the book How to Brew, a guide to home brewing. 34 degrees happens to be the exact temperature Palmer recommends for making lager in your kitchen. So way to go MillerCoors, you’ve managed to follow directions from a recipe and do something anyone with an old ice box and a couple of bags of ice can accomplish. Brilliant!

Beer companies are usually selling the message of Ice Cold Beer because they know it appeals to the consumers sense of refreshment. They are also willing to assume that the average American does not know how beer is made, much less what a hop is (a topic for a much larger post down the road).

Beeriety is here to change some of these myths by providing more information about beer, beer culture and homebrewing to the everyday drinker.