The 'Champagne of Beers' gets crushed in Belgium

A worker dumps empty cans of Miller High Life beer into a machine to be crushed at the Westlandia plant in Ypres, Belgium, on Monday.

BRUSSELS — The guardians of Champagne will let no one take the name of the bubbly beverage in vain, not even a U.S. beer behemoth.

For years, Miller High Life has used the “Champagne of Beers” slogan. This week, that appropriation became impossible to swallow.

At the request of the trade body defending the interests of houses and growers of the northeastern French sparkling wine, Belgian customs crushed more than 2,000 cans of Miller High Life advertised as such.