Blending in the US

It makes no mention of being bottled in NY and says that is was imported. I suppose it could be saying that the contents were imported, but that seems misleading and I don't think that should be allowed.

 

Perhaps I'm missing something obvious, but doesn't Three Philosophers contain a small portion of imported Lambic which is blended with the base beer?

 

Uh...that's some sort of inside joke, right?

 

Separately, is blending beer and spirits actually forbidden, or just financially stupid because of the tax issues?

 

I doubt there are legal issues. Probably just costly/risky to transport full barrels. A couple years ago CBC collaborated with Russian River and blended Cerise Cassée with Consectration in a 5 gallon oak barrel. It was okay.

 

I thought they use Boon kriek. Or is that in the New Belgium kriek?

 

Doesn't Cantillon also source some of their wort to Tilquin?

 

That's one of those little things I always wondered but never gave much thought to. It just struck me in reading the thread that both you and the other posters all mentioned pretty obscure beers, and I thought, hang on a sec, there's a beer most of us see in the store/bar every time we're in there that has this very property. But how they actually accomplish it is a good question.

 

Since they (Ommegang and Liefmans) are all owned by the same parent company do they even need to state any purchases or pay taxes since technically they are shipping beer from one brewery to another brewery all owned by the same company and it could be considered an internal transaction?

 

Yes.

 

You and "Rutager" are the ones speculating that it is bottled in New York - which I only noted would not prevent it from being labeled "Product of Belgium" according to TTB labeling rules for imported beer. The label I find for Lambickx says:

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Any beer that was marketed as being flavored with spirits would be considered a "Flavored Malt Beverage" and would have to meet the rules in TTB TD-21 which:

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"...permits the addition of flavors and other nonbeverage materials containing alcohol to beers and malt beverages. Malt beverages that contain not more than 6% alcohol by volume may derive no more than 49% of their alcohol content from flavors and other nonbeverage materials. If a malt beverage contains more than 6% alcohol by volume, not more than 1.5% of the volume of the finished product may consist of alcohol derived from flavors and other nonbeverage ingredients containing alcohol....​

And that:

"...a product that does not comply with the requirements of TTB TD-21 may not be produced at a brewery, bottled at a brewery, removed from a brewery with or without payment of tax, removed from customs custody for consumption, or (in the case of products not destined for exportation), transferred to a second customs bonded warehouse. Such a product may be reformulated for production at a distilled spirits plant."​

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So it appears a beer/spirits blend would be classified and taxed at the higher Distilled Spirits Excise Tax rate of "$13.50 less any credit for wine and flavor content per proof gallon".

 

No, I'm not sure. I thought that I read this some time ago, but couldn't find any thread or article to verify. Was hoping someone else would chime in, I'd like to know the facts myself.

 

For DC Beer Week, 7 breweries blended their saisons together for create one beer. I'm not sure how the taxation and revenue from that beer would be handled.

 

All of the beers were made at Deschutes and blended in their barrel house.

 

I've blended Cuvee de Largadeer several times...although the costs to do so are quite astronomical!