Milwaukee natives know that smell. That brief, gone-before-you-know-it scent that wafts though your car on I-94. It’s yeast, and we all know what that means – it’s Miller Time. This split second is an important one. It reminds every Brew City driver they’re home, where beer is business.

This business begins in Miller Valley, which sits silently, just off this freeway on Milwaukee’s west side. It’s nestled modestly beneath a colossal Miller sign and gigantic brown brewing buildings. It’s a Saturday, and the roads are quiet leading up to the Miller microcosm.

Cobblestone streets run through the facility, reminiscent of 19^th century Milwaukee. I’m here for the Miller Brewery Tour, which offers a free walk though the brewhouse, as well as the packaging and the distribution centers that keep this well-oiled company producing a half million cases a day.

Christian Cavalier, our comedic Miller brewery tour guide explains that with the MillerCoors venture, the company produces about 85 million cases annually, 10 million of which come from Milwaukee.

“That’s enough beer to fill 32,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools for quite possibly the most epic pool party of all time,” he jokes.

With 18 domestic beers, seven imports, three “crafts” and five specialty beers, MillerCoors production is busy. The four most popular in Wisconsin include Miller Genuine Draft, Miller High Life, Milwaukee’s Best and Miller Lite – all brewed in and distributed from Milwaukee.

MillerCoors Director of Media Relations Julian Green understands Milwaukee’s great beer heritage.

“Beer is synonymous to Milwaukee,” he says. “It’s a place that gave birth to many of this company’s great, historic beer brands. Brands that people have come to love at a quality level they expect.”

Milwaukee native Max Kaminsky is proud to buy Miller.

“I buy Miller to support Milwaukee and Wisconsin. I don’t want to support St. Louis, so I don’t buy Bud,” he says.

Kaminsky isn’t the only Milwaukee resident who feels this way. His friends share the same passion for locally brewed ale.

“If one of our friends would bring Bud to a party they’d get yelled at,” Kaminsky says. “Not because it doesn’t taste good, but because drinking that stuff is almost as bad as rooting for the Bears.”

Filling up the cans and glass bottles happens quickly in this now quiet assembly line-filled production warehouse.

“Here at Miller, we try to fill-up bottles just as fast as you can drink them to keep up with demand, filling 1,400 glass bottles per minute,” Cavalier says, “and if you can drink that fast you might want to try cans – we fill those around 2,000 per minute.”

“I could probably do it,” 23-year-old Milwaukeean John Sweet says.

“I love Miller because it’s the designated tailgating beer. If you’re drinking it, you’re probably at a Brewer game, Packer game – or it’s the weekend. All good stuff,” Sweet says.

Saturday means routine cleaning in Miller Valley, so these slick, complicated mechanisms are slowed to a stop. Cans aren’t rushing past – no labeling machine to witness, but the guide promises it’s an amazing sight on weekdays.

After labeling and casing, he tells us of the critical and intricate inspection process. After bottles or cans have been packaged, a laser evaluates each one for every possible imperfection.

“If there is anything wrong with one, it’s bumped right off the line and routed directly to the trunk of my car,” he says.

“In all seriousness,” he says, “they will all be manually repackaged at the end of every shift to make sure every case that leaves this plant is in perfect, pristine condition.”

The reason for this critical inspection stems from founder Frederick J. Miller’s original brewing promise. Once the German immigrant settled in Milwaukee and began to brew his famous lager, he vowed to always expect perfection and offer ‘quality – uncompromising and unchanging.’ Miller still sticks to that same idea 150 years later.

“The products we make are of uncompromising quality,” Green says. “It’s our job to make sure the beer legalized drinkers have come to know and enjoy will be produced well into the future.”