MILWAUKEE, WIS. “It started out as spitting on corn syrup-and really in the commercial. Now there are accusations of corporate espionage.

The months-long battle between rival brewers MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch, which has already spawned several hundred petitions, exhibitions and other court filings, continues to take a new turn.

And MillerCoors, according to Anheuser-Busch, ended up with photos of recipes for Bud Light and Michelob Ultra-recipes AB said are “highly confidential, confidential and trade secret information.”

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This, of course, is when Anheuser-Busch unveiled a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign needling MillerCoors to use corn syrup in Miller Lite and Coors Light, touching off a court battle that continues to rage.

MillerCoors sued, alleging false advertising, and carried the field so far. 

In may, a U.S. district judge denied Anheuser-Busch’s motion to dismiss the case and issued a preliminary injunction barring the brewer from using the words “corn syrup” in ads and on social media without providing more context. Early last month, a judge extended a preliminary injunction against Anheuser-Busch packaging.

MillerCoors spokesman Adam Collins said in an email Thursday that the firm ” respects confidential information and takes any contrary allegations seriously.”

“But if the ingredients are a secret,” he added, ” why are they spending tens of millions of dollars telling the world what’s in Bud Light? And why are the ingredients printed on the Bud Light packaging in giant letters?»             

“As for their tired claims about corn syrup, the same residual elements they’re talking about are also in Bud Light and Michelob Ultra. If that is their argument, it is not surprising that they have lost three rulings in this case already.”

In its filing, Anheuser-Busch said the recipes provide much more information than the ingredients it lists publicly for its beer. Recipes specify such proprietary details as the types of barley and hops used in Bud Light and Michelob Ultra, how the ingredients are mixed and, in the case of hops, where they come from, he said.

“Hops give a unique taste profile to each of these Beers, and for this reason all the jumping information is particularly sensitive,” he said.

Anheuser-Busch also noted in its filing that corn syrup is one of the ingredients listed for Miller Lite and Coors Light on the MillerCoors website. “Corn syrup sugars and byproducts are present in the finished Miller Lite and Coors Lager Beers,” Anheuser-Busch said.

“Corn syrup is a brewing adjunct serving the same basic function of feeding yeast as rice does in Bud Light,” Collins said Thursday. “It is consumed in the brewing process and corn syrup is not in the final beer.”

Follow Rick Romell on Twitter: @RickRomell