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posted by takyon on Wednesday October 28 2015, @10:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the blue-loon dept.

It turns out you can hide an entire brewery (or not even have a brewery) and pretend to produce a craft beer, advertise it as such, and it's not even against the law. For years, Blue Moon Brewing Co. has been passing off its beers as "microbrews", or "craft beers", while curiously building market share beyond what a craft brewery could actually produce. The catch is that Blue Moon is semi-secret brand of MillerCoors LLC. CourtHouseNews reports:

Evan Parent, who describes himself as a "beer aficionado," began buying Blue Moon beer in 2011, but stopped in about mid-2012 when he discovered it is made by MillerCoors LLC, which owns widely recognizable labels such as Coors, Miller High Life, Milwaukee's Best and Hamms.

Parent started a class action law suit against MillerCoors in San Diego state court, claiming deceptive practices and misrepresentation in violation of California's Consumers Legal Remedies Act; untrue and misleading advertising in violation of California's false advertising law; and unlawful, fraudulent and unfair business practices in violation of California's unfair competition law.

Under craft-brewing principles [as defined by the Brewers Association], brewers cannot produce more the 6 million barrels of beer annually, must be less than 25 percent owned by a non-craft brewer and must brew beer using only traditional or innovative brewing ingredients. In comparison, MillerCoors makes about 76 million barrels of beer per year, according to Parent who says the company charges "up to 50 percent more for Blue moon" based on its bogus craft-beer status. He also claims the company "goes to great lengths to disassociate Blue Moon beer from the MillerCoors name" by stating on Blue Moon packaging that it is brewed by Blue Moon Brewing Co.

MillerCoors managed to get the case moved to federal court, and the judge handed MillerCoors a slam dunk win on all counts. MillerCoors found specific loopholes in California law that allowed them to produce beer under "fictitious names" if they just register those names on the official "fictitious names" registry. The plaintiff has 30 days to amend the complaint after the judge's final order.


takyon: MillerCoors LLC is a joint venture between SABMiller and Molson Coors Brewing Company that was created in 2007 and approved by U.S. antitrust regulators in 2008. It has been described as a challenger to Anheuser-Busch. However, SABMiller recently agreed to be purchased by Anheuser-Busch InBev for $106 billion. MillerCoors may be dismantled by regulators and some brands could be divested.

Previously: Congress May Lower Beer Taxes, Sam Adams Could Cease to be "Craft Beer"

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday October 28 2015, @12:58PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday October 28 2015, @12:58PM (#255551) Journal

    Hmm, "albino guatamalen maidens..."

    Sorry, drifted there for a moment.

    The replacement word you're looking for is "artisanal." The hipsters in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, have made that a thing. You can even buy 'artisanal' paper and pickles now. "Bespoke" is probably a close second, but that one sticks in your craw.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Zinho on Wednesday October 28 2015, @02:17PM

    by Zinho (759) on Wednesday October 28 2015, @02:17PM (#255593)

    I really hope people aren't using "bespoke" as a synonym for "artisanal". At least when you're talking about clothing, "bespoke" means tailored specifically for a particular person; it's what's going on when you see someone getting fitted for a custom suit in the movies etc.

    If we were to translate that into brewing, for a beer batch to be "bespoke" it would have to be an entire batch brewed for a specific person's tastes, on demand. I can't imagine that ever happening, due to a) cost (buying the entire batch?), b) inability of customer to communicate/brewer to divine what would make the best beer for a specific customer. At a microbrew level perhaps that's possible. I don't think it would be practical at any level of industrial scale, even a craft brewery is too big for something like that.

    --
    "Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
    • (Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Wednesday October 28 2015, @02:42PM

      by Hyperturtle (2824) on Wednesday October 28 2015, @02:42PM (#255601)

      Yes, so based on your commentary, expect these words to mean something else to a brewer because they already mean the wrong thing to other people.

      These terms are ripe for profitable harvest and exploitation as being presented as new marketing words to mean "for the discriminating ignorant man who consumes beer based on naming conventions alone and copious flesh colored advertisements"

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Zinho on Wednesday October 28 2015, @05:36PM

        by Zinho (759) on Wednesday October 28 2015, @05:36PM (#255709)

        Yeah, I saw an article in WaPo about hipsters bringing back "vintage" language. [washingtonpost.com] I was hoping they were using the words properly as charming anachronisms; I guess it's inevitable that the definitions would shift when usage resumes. My wife's got her Bachelor's degree in Linguistics, and she'd tell me not to be surprised at this. Doesn't keep me from being disappointed by the words getting mis-appropriated.

        Come to think if it, that article may make a decent submission... I'll put it in the firehose later.

        --
        "Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday October 28 2015, @04:06PM

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday October 28 2015, @04:06PM (#255654) Journal

      It's not a synonym, but it is a trend following closely on the heels of "artisanal." "Bespoke" can mean "tailored for an individual," but it can also be construed as, "custom." You could create a "bespoke" brew for Halloween (meaning, "pumpkin flavored"). I've seen things like that in Brooklyn, and it makes me laugh. But people do it, and call it such.

      Language is a hotly contested space, though most people don't think of it that way.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.