Bar owner sides with Miller, pours Budweiser products down the drain

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) - A beer battle that began with a Super Bowl commercial is going strong in Milwaukee.

Now one local bartender is doing something about it.

There are Miller people and Budweiser people.  The difference between these two heavyweight light beers has always been a matter of taste.

“If people like Bud Light they are doing to say it tastes better, if they drink Miller Lite they are going to say the same thing,” said Jennifer Bacik who runs an Oconomowoc bar.

But that brand loyalty has turned into open opposition ever since Bud Light launched an ad campaign pointing out other beers, like Miller Lite, use corn syrup in the brewing process.

The commercial is a bit misleading. The company doesn’t use the unpopular high fructose corn syrup.

But the battle was on and some in the Miller town of Milwaukee, took offense to the ads.

Casey Foltz, owner of Puddler’s Hall is doing something about it.

“I really just did it for fun to, like I said, get rid of the beer,” said Foltz.

He recently posted video of his staff pouring all their Bud Light down the bathroom drain.

He won’t sell any Budweiser for the foreseeable future.

“If they came back and apologized to the city and took the billboards down, then maybe I’d consider bringing it back, but right now no plans,” said Foltz.

He said it’s a point of pride for Milwaukee.

“There’s a certain amount of hometown pride and seeing a company from out of Milwaukee come in and kind of bash a company that employs 1000 plus people in Milwaukee, that was enough to get it off the shelves,” said Foltz.

But not everyone is convinced the ads will have much of an impact.

Like Matt Meyer who we ran into at Major Goolsby’s in Milwaukee, with two distinct beers in front of him.

“I got High Life and a Bud Light,” said Meyer.

“It doesn’t really matter to me, I mean a beer is a beer if you ask me,” he said.

It’s not just beer drinkers taking offense.

The beer companies recently teamed up to start a beer alliance.  Their goal was to launch a campaign to encourage people to drink more beer.

Miller pulled out of the recent meeting.