Beer News

Stone’s Ales Not Cutting the Mustard After All

Over the last few years, Stone Brewing Company in Escondido, Calif., has collaborated with Carlsbad Gourmet, a local condiment vendor, to produce a number of Stone-infused condiments such as Arrogant Bastard hot sauces and Levitation barbecue sauce.

Carlsbad Gourmet once again had teamed up with Stone, this time to sell two varieties of mustard containing Stone ales. The mustards were made, but when it came time for taste-testing, something was missing—the beer.

Stone CEO Greg Koch publicly addressed the issue in the company blog, stating, “We had no idea this was happening, and we immediately removed them from sale as soon as we learned of it last week. We work with [Carlsbad Gourmet owner] Russ Bruhn … to supply the mustards; Russ then contracts with another company to produce them. It is this company that we have found failed to put the beer in the mustard. What they did with the beer, we’re not sure. We sent them full kegs and they sent us back empty kegs … one can only imagine where it might have gone.”

Stone is accepting full responsibility for the mishap, and is offering to exchange a 22-ounce bottle of Stone Pale Ale or Cali-Belgique IPA if you bring your jar of mustard to the company store in Escondido, or a discount at its online store for those unable to make the trip to California.

Koch adds, “We apologize for this and hope your faith in us won’t be too shaken by the drama of MustardGate 2010. We are very ticked off about this, but that doesn’t mean you have to be.”

Georgetown Brewing Changes Brew’s Name, Logo

Another instance of a brewer defending their trademark has come out of Vermont. This time, Magic Hat was forced to defend their flagship #9 “Not-Quite-Pale Ale” from potential infringement by Seattle’s Georgetown Brewing Company, which had trademarked the name “9# Porter.”

Georgetown’s brew, pronounced “nine pound,” was named after the Nine Pound Hammer, a local pub. Magic Hat founder Alan Newman learned of its name and spelling last year, and asked Georgetown if they would change the Porter’s name to avoid confusion between brands and the need for litigation, and Georgetown agreed.

Both parties were very flexible during negotiations, but Georgetown still isn’t completely happy with how things turned out. Georgetown co-founder Manny Chao elaborates via a company-issued email, “After much discussion, Alan agreed that we could keep the name but we would have to change the label and use the spelled out word ‘NINE’ in place of the numeric ‘9’ so that there would be less confusion with the brands. We were ok with this [but] where we disagreed, however, is that Alan wants to own the brand name 9LB Porter and license it back to us for no fee. He argued that this was the only way he could protect his trade name against any future trademark infringement issues with any other brewery. The license … would not limit our use of the mark (other than not being able to use the numeric ‘9’).”

Newman reaffirmed to BA via phone that Magic Hat was very reasonable throughout the process, and they believe the situation was handled as best as it could have been.

Crew Kidnapped While Attempting to Film Commercial in Mexico

Natives of rural southern Mexico don’t take trespassing on their land lightly. On June 10, 15 members of a film crew hired by Grupo Modelo and 13 Mexican reporters were kidnapped in two separate instances in the Michoacán coastal area; each group was released unharmed several hours later.

The groups were confronted by machete-wielding Nahua Indians, who own a commune on the land and were upset that Grupo Modelo did not ask their permission to use their land in a commercial shoot. The reporters were kidnapped because the Nahua were unaware they were independent of the Modelo crew.

While everyone was released unharmed, the Nahua withheld everybody’s camera equipment, which the Mexican government is attempting to get back through negotiation with the Nahua.

“Orange Girls” Arrested for Alleged World Cup Guerilla Marketing Stunt

A group of 36 women wearing orange dresses were ejected from the Netherlands-Denmark World Cup match on June 14. World Cup organizers FIFA claim the group of women all dressed in orange as a guerilla marketing stunt by Holland’s Bavaria brewery.

The World Cup, a globally celebrated event, is one of precious few opportunities for sponsors to advertise brands on a worldwide level. FIFA has strict rules about attempted brand association from companies that aren’t official sponsors though, and that’s where Bavaria got into trouble.

The group was removed from the game in the second half and questioned by FIFA officials, who eventually let 34 women, who were hired locally, go, since they did not coordinate the act. The other two women, who are Dutch employees of Bavaria, were arrested on charges of violation of the South Africa Merchandise Marks Act. The women were bailed out, and FIFA eventually dropped charges against them a week later, on June 22.

The group got into the event using a block of tickets provided by internationally famous soccer commentator Robbie Earle. Earle has since been let go from his position on TV, but insists he did nothing wrong by providing the tickets. ■