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One night, White attends a MillerCoors-sponsored event where he recalls being “concerned” as to what he will find to drink. Someone there recommends a beer called, “Wild Ting.” Miller Valley, located in Milwaukee and one of Miller’s pilot breweries, has brewed this Single Hop IPA brewed with Citra. It is named after MillerCoors employee, Pat Ting, whom Technical Quarterly notes was “instrumental in the recognition of the unique brewing qualities of Citra, and MillerCoors followed with financial support of the first commercial production of Citra.”

White is so impressed with the beer that he goes back to the Miller offices and discusses it with Zimmer. Here are all these small breweries under the MillerCoors umbrella that are experimenting and producing flavorful beers and receiving relatively little recognition for them in the public sphere. And that is when it hits him…

“We can’t get the public to believe that we make great beer until we believe that we make great beer.”

White and Zimmer devise a plan to get these “side projects” out to the company and spread beer appreciation throughout the organization.

Once a month, on every third Thursday, employees, family and friends are invited up to the MillerCoors bar. At least three beers are featured and cards are handed out describing each one. Brewers are sometimes present to talk about their wares. Everyone from Blue Moon, which makes up more than half of Tenth and Blake, to the little-known breweries like AC Golden are featured.

White says of AC Golden, “They’re really into sours and barrel-aging.”

The company goes all-out for these events, too.

“When you talk to people who have been to the brewery in Plzen [Plzensky Prazdroj], they describe it as if it were a religious experience. We wanted to recreate that in some way here in Chicago so we flew in two kegs of unpasteurized, unfiltered Pilsner Urquell for one of these events. It must have been the freshest Pilsner Urquell ever served in the States.”

The program, dubbed, “Brewers Unleashed,” only surfaced in the media recently despite being implemented well before the formation of Tenth and Blake. Zimmer describes it as a resounding success with the bar at or near capacity of 275 during the most recent nights.

The company is gradually bringing the program into the public consciousness through social media. On a recent Thursday night, a few attendees, including Zimmer, started a #brewersunleashed hashtag on Twitter. The featured brewery? Terrapin Beer Company (pic).