Peter Hand opened his brewery in 1891 in Chicago, IL and began brewing German style beers. Meister Brau soon became his flagship prosuct. Peter Hand's death in 1899 did not slow down demand for Meister Brau. Peter Hand's Old Chicago beer soon became a local favorite in Chicago. In 1967 investors purchased the brewery and renamed it Meister Brau in honor of it's best selling beer. Soon after, a biochemist from Rheingold Brewery in New York took his formulation for Gablinger's Diet Beer to Meister Brau. This diet beer became the first successful Lite beer. Meister Brau Lite was sold to Miller Brewing in 1972. It lives on to this day under the label of Miller Lite.