USA: Miller Lite has won a gold medal in the 2006 Brewers Association World Beer Cup

Miller Lite, which accounts for about 40% of Miller Brewing's sales, was named the best "American-style light lager" from among 22 entries, capturing a gold medal in the 2006 Brewers Association World Beer Cup, Journal Sentinel posted on April 17.

Miller Lite won the same award in 2002 - the competition is biennial - and proclaimed the fact in subsequent marketing. Miller Brewing is likely to repeat that strategy. "You can expect to hear us talking about this in the future," Pete Marino, a Miller spokesman, said Monday about the latest award, which was presented Friday in Seattle, Wash.

After years of losing market share, Miller Lite began rebounding in mid 2003. In 2004, the industry newsletter Beer Marketer's Insights said the beer's sales rose 10.5% - a healthy gain in a market that increased 0.6% overall.

Miller Lite sales continued to grow in 2005, corporate parent SABMiller Plc said last week. The company didn't say how much sales grew.

Benj Steinman, president of Beer Marketer's Insights, said Miller almost certainly would exploit the gold medal for Miller Lite but probably wouldn't build entire advertising campaigns around it. "I think they can use it in their marketing," he said. "I don't imagine it becomes a major piece of anything."

A spokeswoman for Bud Light, the industry-leading Anheuser-Busch brand that Miller Lite often tweaks in its ads, said the company had no comment.

Miller Brewing won three other gold medals in the World Beer Cup, and the company and brewmaster David Ryder were named champion brewery and brewmaster in the large-company category.

The Brewers Association, based in Boulder Colo., is a non-profit trade group for small, traditional and independent craft brewers. In this year's awards competition, 540 breweries submitted 2,221 entries in 85 beer-style categories.

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