Posts Tagged ‘legally interesting/controversial’
Blue Ball Porter
Get your mind out of the gutter. It’s not about sex. It’s about good beer from eastern Pennsylvania.
Intercourse Blue Ball Porter is Ale with Natural Flavor. Intercourse Brewing Company is located in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch Country. Blue Ball is a small community also located in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
It’s not about this. It’s not about this. The funny looking silo above is just a silo. Intercourse is quite popular and as of today, this Facebook page confirms that 415 people “like it.”
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legally interesting/controversial, risqué, sexual, speaks for itself
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Beer + Hemp
Until about 10 years ago, there were quite a few beers made with hemp available in the US. Then TTB/ATF put out a policy and also said:
On April 6, 2000, ATF issued a policy on the use of hemp or hemp components in alcohol beverages and on the use of the term “hemp” or depictions of the hemp plant on labels for alcohol beverages. The policy does not ban the use of hemp in alcohol beverages, but was created to assure that beverage alcohol products do not contain a controlled substance (tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)). ATF also determined that the appearance of the word “hemp” or depictions of hemp plants on labels was likely to create a misleading impression as to the true identity or quality of the product. As of this writing, there are no approved certificates of label approval for products containing hemp.
Slowly but surely, however, in recent months various beers with hemp are starting to re-emerge and three of them are highlighted in this post. For the uninitiated, hemp happens to be a member of the cannabaceae family, a cousin of hops and close kin of marijuana (or cannabis). Above is O’Fallon’s Hemp Hop Rye, an amber ale brewed with hemp seeds and approved earlier this year. The label mentions the hemp, and has a little picture of the hops and rye — but the hemp or hemp seed imagery seemed to be missing (until we added it to the image above). According to a St. Louis Riverfront Times review the product “contains three kinds of malted barley, two types of rye, three varieties of hops and toasted hemp seed.”
TTB applied several hemp-specific qualifications to this and the other hemp approvals. TTB said:
- This label may not be used on a product that contains a controlled substance.
- Hemp component(s) must be tested in the U.S. for the presence of controlled substance(s) each time component is imported and results must be maintained on your premises for inspection.
- A detailed description of the method of analysis used by the U.S. lab to test for controlled substance must be maintained on your premise for inspection.
A second example is Humboldt Brown Ale Brewed with Hemp. It is brewed by Firestone Walker of Paso Robles, California. This approval also happens to add “This malt beverage may not have been produced with adjuncts (additives) except those that do not remain in the finished product.”
Our third example is Rogue Epoch Days Ale Brewed with Hemp Seeds. It is brewed in Newport, Oregon and happens to include a highly detailed ingredient list of a sort that is fairly rare on alcohol beverage labels.
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ingredients, legally interesting/controversial, policy, would you approve it?
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Kombucha Buzz Draws TTB Scrutiny
Mention the words “kombucha” and “buzz” in 2006 and you’d likely be referring to the drink’s growing popularity. But mention those same words today and you’d likely be talking about allegations the fermented tea drink contains a small but legally significant amount of alcohol.
As a recent TTB statement illustrates, the Bureau is working with FDA to ensure that kombucha sold as a non-alcoholic beverage—currently all kombucha—contains less than 0.5% alcohol. Some reports claim kombucha contains up to 3% alcohol. From the TTB release:
Kombucha is a fermented tea that is typically marketed as a non-alcoholic beverage, which means that it may contain a trace amount of alcohol, as long as the overall alcohol content is less than 0.5 percent alcohol by volume. In some cases these products have alcohol contents that significantly exceed 0.5 percent. At this point, TTB does not know how many brands might be affected by this issue.
[...]
TTB plans to take samples of kombucha products from the marketplace and test their alcohol content in order to determine if the products are labeled in compliance with Federal law. If TTB finds alcohol beverages that are not labeled in accordance with Federal law, we will take appropriate steps to bring them into compliance.
TTB’s kombucha inquiry received some added exposure after Whole Foods pulled the drink from its shelves at the suggestion of TTB and amid news reports suggesting troubled actress Lindsay Lohan’s consumption of the drink may have been responsible for setting off her court-ordered alcohol-monitoring ankle bracelet. Lohan, for her part, recently began serving a 90-day jail sentence a judge imposed on the actress earlier this summer as punishment for skipping mandatory alcohol-education courses.
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legally interesting/controversial, media buzz, policy
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Scurvy Re-Emerges
Now we learn that it’s not a good idea to name your beer after a disease, if you want to avoid controversy. Above is Tyranena Brewing Company’s Scurvy Ale Brewed with Orange Peel. TTB approved the label in 2008 and again in March of 2010.
Beernews.org reports that it has not been easy:
Tyranena Brewing finally got label approval late this past week but not without some headaches from the TTB first. Here is the lowdown on what went wrong.
The following is based on one or more Tyranena newsletters.
The Government Is Back On My Nerves And Throwing Off Our Whole Schedule. … Yesterday, we were informed that the TTB rejected our new label… apparently they thought the name “Scurvy” together with the government-mandated Statement of Composition “Ale Brewed With Orange Peel” implies a health benefit from the consumption of the product.
Our new six packs were one the verge of being printed and fortunately we were able to stop them. We will be submitting a variation of the label hoping to get it through… but it is unknown whether it will meet their criteria… or how long it will take them to approve it. … Now our whole schedule is in disarray.
Stacey has been communicating with our national trade group, the Brewers Association, who said the TTB guy (and apparently there is just one guy that approves all the labels!) is reasonable and suggested that we talk with him to see how things can go from here… which may just include having approval for our former Scurvy label (the Brewers Gone Wild! version) rescinded!
Sometimes, it can be difficult to navigate the shoals between implying that a beer is good for you, and bad for you.
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legally interesting/controversial, policy
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Jakk’d
We can learn a lot from this Jakk’d label:
- It is one of very few that mentions the amount of caffeine on the label. This is probably a good thing. It is hard to imagine a good argument for disallowing a short, plain statement as to how much of a powerful psychoactive substance is in the beverage you are about to consume. This product has 75 mg. of caffeine per bottle, according to the label. It might be even better if the label used an icon or other simple statement to show that this is roughly equivalent to a cup of coffee.
- According to box 19, the brand name does not refer to anything nefarious, and instead refers to the name of the company’s founder, and other good things like “cool,” “thorough enjoyment,” and “being pumped about the greatness of this drink.” TTB is not so sure, and noted that “The brand name remains under review.”
- This is a rare spirits label with an FDA-style ingredient list.
Jakk’d is made in Temperance, Michigan.
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caffeine/secondary effects, legally interesting/controversial, policy
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