CASONOMA-L Archives

From:
Subject: Joseph L. Owades Obit
Date: 30 Dec 2005 15:03:23 -0700

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.

Surnames: owades
Classification: Death

Message Board URL:

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/YW.2ADI/4091

Message Board Post:

Sonoma beer pioneer leaves 'light' legacy



Thursday, December 22, 2005 5:53 PM PST



12.23.05 - "Tastes great, less filling." Joseph L. Owades didn't invent the famous Miller Lite catchphrase, but he made it possible - while revolutionizing the beer industry worldwide.

Owades, who died Friday, Dec. 16, at his home in Sonoma at the age of 86, developed a process in the 1960s for removing the starch from beer - an innovation that established the light beer industry, and secured Owades a prominent place in brewing history.

Owades was working for Rheingold Breweries in Brooklyn, N.Y., when he developed a way to reduce the carbohydrates and calories in beer. When his own beer product, Gablinger's Diet Beer, failed to interest consumers - its marketing campaign ads featured a sumo wrestler devouring spaghetti while guzzling a Gablinger's - he shared his formula with associates at Meister Brau brewery in Chicago. When Miller Brewing bought out Meister Brau in the 1970s it acquired the light beer process and embarked on its famous "tastes great, less filling" ad campaign featuring well known athletes - and the rest was history.

Or, history-lite, as the case may be.

This thread:

• Joseph L. Owades Obit by