policy

Latrobe did a “brilliant” job here, picking up on a lot of important trends.

Let’s see how many instructive legal issues this one label raises. Extra points for anyone who can raise additional issues. No more ALS challenges, please.

1. It is beer but it more or less screams spirits.
2. In a variety of ways. (For example, the brand name refers to moonshine paraphernalia, as Tickle’s sidekick helpfully explains.*)
3. Within the rules, probably.
4. Even though spirits terms are not allowed on beer labels.
5. Even though this product contains and purports to contain absolutely no whiskey of any sort.
6. It mentions George Dickel at least three times.
7. It mentions Rye but not Rye Whiskey. This is very smart in that, though they mean about the same thing to most people, rye is just a grain, and it’s not necessarily whiskey without the second word attached. Like Bourbon is not sufficient on even a Bourbon Whiskey label, without the second word.
8. Latrobe used a formula, notwithstanding that TTB has eased way up on formula requirements.
9. The label raises a lot of good trademark issues, tied up with Latrobe’s use of another company’s highly protected brand name.
10. TTB seems to be allowing the term “refreshing” these days, on a pretty liberal basis, even though this policy...

As of this date and writing, we have 168 good surveys.

Almost all of them are submitted by people with relevant experience; 77% of the respondents have more than two years of work experience in the alcohol beverage field.

The term “craft” has become crucially important to thousands of producers and millions of consumers in recent years.  And yet it has no agreed meaning.  We intend to change that within one year from launch, and fill the term with meaning in a fair, flexible, enforceable, modern way, to save it from abuse.

– Craft Beverage Association, July 19, 2014

These surveys provide solid feedback on what the term “craft” does mean or should mean, in relation to beer, wine and spirits.

If you have not yet completed a survey, and you work in the alcohol beverage field, please complete the survey here. We would like to have at least 500 responses before drawing any major conclusions. We are off to a good start, with 152 responses in the first week.

The survey is sponsored by the Craft Beverage Association. This is a Washington, DC-based non-profit trade association that seeks to define the term “craft,” within one year from launch, in a fair, enforceable and flexible way, to fill it with meaning and save it...

Palcohol is probably the biggest story in my 25 years of working with alcohol beverage law. As much or more media interest as compared to absinthe or Four Loko, or even direct shipping. Palcohol went from zero results on Google as of April 18th to more than 2 million as of this writing (and 4 million as of May 2). By some measures it’s bigger than Rhianna.* So, what happened? This FAQ expands on and updates our original blog post first published on April 18.

1. What is Palcohol? It is powderized alcohol. By the way, we don’t represent Palcohol or speak for them. The technology is explained here.
2. Why does it matter? It is much more portable as compared to heavy liquids. It is not clear that the US Government has ever approved a powdered alcohol in the past, even though the technology has been around since the 1970s.
3. Is it approved or not? The Palcohol company has made a huge amount of progress toward bringing this to stores. They have about five formula approvals and a distilling permit. These are big projects and major accomplishments. Formula approval usually takes a couple of months and involves a thorough review of all ingredients and methods. The permit usually takes six months or more and involves background...