Summer is upon us, which means it’s time for crisp beers, sparkling wines, and the newest member of the “refreshing” alcohol beverage family – hard seltzer. By now you’re likely aware of hard seltzer, but despite its growing popularity, consumers are still relatively limited to a few national brands and a handful of regional brands. High consumer demand and room for competition make entering the hard seltzer market an appealing proposition. If you are considering launching a line of hard seltzers, keep reading, as this article lays out some important regulatory considerations to keep in mind.

The majority of hard seltzer is produced from either a brewed-malt (“clear malt”) or brewed-sugar (where 100% of the fermentables are derived from non-malt sugar) base, with carbonated water and added flavor. Under Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) regulations, both malt- and sugar-based hard seltzers are considered “beer,” but only malt-based hard seltzers are also considered “malt beverages.” This means that federal beer rules (27 CFR Part 25) apply to both malt- and sugar-based hard seltzers, but federal malt beverage labeling and advertising rules (27 CFR Part 7) apply only to malt-based hard seltzers.

The upshot of all this is that producing a hard seltzer with either type of base requires a Brewer’s Notice, and – if you’re...

A few months ago, an industry newsletter brought news of Baby Mouse Wine and other delicacies oddities from around the world. Since then, the email has been clogging up my inbox, as I attempt to track down this libation. The article was originally in Forbes and had this to say about the mouse wine:

Like the name suggests, this is a rice wine containing baby mice. Best prepare, this explanation isn’t for the faint of heart. Baby mice are taken soon after being born, and dropped, alive, into a bottle of rice wine. The “rules” state that they must be under 72 hours old and their eyes must still be closed. After about a dozen of the little guys are in, the bottle is left to ferment and age for a year. Most people reading this are probably feeling a little uncomfortable right about now, but in Asia, the drink is bound by tradition and goes back centuries. The country of origin is debated to this day. Whether it came from Korea or China, the wine is said to greatly help asthma patients and people with liver disease.

I am simultaneously relieved and disappointed, that I can’t find any of this in the TTB database. If there is a more exotic product out there, I have...

Several wineries in the Commonwealth of Virginia are not federally registering their wine brands as trademarks. We compared the number of wineries in all 50 states (and the District of Columbia) to the number of federal wine trademark applications/registrations, and here are the results. As you will see, while Virginia comes in eighth place among all states regarding the total number of wineries (360 wineries according to TTB), Virginia wineries are in tradethe bottom half of all states (28th place) when it comes to federal trademark applications and registrations per winery (409 applications/registrations, or just above 1 trademark application/registration per winery). This rate drops to about 7 applications/registrations per 10 wineries when you add in pending winery licensees (573, according to Virginia ABC). This rate would be even lower if we considered the almost certainty that some of the applicants/registrants are private label brand owners that do not themselves own a winery.

This begs the question, “Why are so many Virginia wineries foregoing federal trademark applications?” There are some legitimate reasons why a company should not try to federally register its brands as trademarks. Read more on that here. In our experience, these situations are few and far between. More likely, we expect that many Virginia wineries may not understand the benefits of trademark registration, may overestimate the...

In late 2017, Congress passed the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (CBMTRA) as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The CBMTRA cut the Federal Excise Tax (FET) on distilled spirits from $13.50 a proof gallon to $2.70 a proof gallon for the first 100,000 proof gallons (approximately 52,631 9-liter cases of 80 proof spirits) removed from bond for consumption or sale in 2018 or 2019.

The rules for distilleries to qualify for the reduced FET are fairly straightforward. To take advantage of the reduced FET on their first 100,000 proof gallons removed from bond in 2018 and 2019, a distillery must distill or processthose spirits. TTB’s definition of “process” is somewhat broad, but includes mixing, rectifying, and bottling. Therefore, a distillery who purchases whiskey or vodka in bulk, and bottles it at their facility, should be eligible to pay the lower FET rate, provided they have not removed more than 100,000 proof gallons in the current calendar year, and the current calendar year is either 2018 or 2019.

Read the rest of this article here.