Has anyone tried these and lived to tell about it? Some people prefer the organic or biodynamic, Others, apparently, lean toward the toxic or deadly. It is nice to see TTB giving consumers some credit for being able to put things in context, and for recognizing that nobody will force them to buy either one of these products (unlike, say, health insurance or government).

Toxic Sludge is an ale made by Blue Point Brewing Company of Patchogue, New York. Jersey’s Toxic Waste, by contrast, is a distilled spirits specialty made by Strong Spirits, Inc., along with Line Brands of Long Branch, New Jersey. Michael Kanbar, of Strong, explains that Strong Spirits “is a contract bottling facility located in Bardstown, Kentucky, ‘The Distilling Capital of the World,’ and does both small and large runs and can handle specialty packaging projects.”

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The 9/11 Memorial wine is made by Lieb Cellars, LLC of Mattituck, New York. In a rare show of unity, it did not go over well with Anthony Bourdain, Dr. Vino, The Colbert Report, or The Christian Post.

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For a lively discussion of whether such labels go too far, follow these links about Lubrication (by Clown Shoes).

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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:

1. This label may not be used on a product that contains a controlled substance.
2. 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.
3. 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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Back when we saw the Scurvy label, we were a bit surprised to see much discussion about disease, on a TTB label. This one goes quite a bit further in the same direction. It mentions “rheumatism, neuralgia, sciatica, lame back, lumbago, contracted muscles, toothache, sprains, swellings, and all manner of distress” — after emphasizing that this will “give relief” from none of those. Instead, it’s “good for everything a stout ought to be good for.” It is tough to judge whether this is funny and playful, or among the types of messages that TTB ought to block. This breakfast stout is brewed with chocolate and coffee, by Founders Brewing of Grand Rapids, Michigan. We could not find the approval here, but did find it here.

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Time Magazine calls the above beer one of the world’s strongest. It looks to be considerably stronger than any beer that the US rules can tolerate. In other countries, Tactical Nuclear Penguin is sold as a beer, at 32% alc./vol.

But this approval shows that, under US rules, this “Super-High-Alcohol-Beer” is actually a distilled spirit (Spirits Distilled from Grain). The Time article explains how BrewDog uses low temperatures to get the alcohol content so high:

the brewery was able to attain the high alcohol content by freezing the beer at a local ice cream factory, at temperatures as low as -6°C (21°F), for 21 days. Alcohol freezes at lower temperatures than water, and removing water from the solution increased the alcohol concentration.

Under US law, such manipulation of the alcohol may be treated as distillation. The Time article points to two even stronger products that at least start as normal beers (before becoming tactical or nuclear):

The drinking games continued in February when a German brewer, Schorschbrau, released a 40% ABV beer called Schorschbock. The BrewDog boys fired back a few weeks later with high-octane concoction Sink the Bismarck!, which checks in at 41%, enough to reclaim the “world’s strongest beer” mantle. …

There is no sign that these other two have been approved for US sale at all yet, let alone as beer.

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The time is drawing near, to wind down this series. I am sure there are a great many more examples, further to this theme. Perhaps the readers will point to a few more. All of the above have something in common, and it should be pretty obvious.

The first label is from Arcadia Brewing of Battle Creek, Michigan.

The second label is from Vaz Brothers of Lodi, California.

The third label is from Arcadian Winery of Lompoc, California.

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Distinctive liquor bottle indeed. Here is Popsy, complete with the 17c distinctive liquor bottle approval box checked off. This liqueur is made in Germany and imported by Import ANT Wines of Venice, Florida.

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The people that set up the pre-market approval system for alcohol beverages probably did not anticipate that, sooner or later, it would come to this. Here is Erection Rum, imported by Data Commodities of Las Vegas, Nevada.

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Something tells me, the less said, the better.

Nice Jugs is California wine produced by Kaz, of Kenwood, California.

Censored is made by Crushpad in San Francisco, California. This location and the ropes remind me of SNL’s excellent skit about Nancy Pelosi.

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