450 North Brewing

Shenanigans!!! What is it you're trying to hide? I'm alerting the TTB.

 

So...they are just taking the ABV off the label?

 

So they're going with the "we were very, very stupid brewers" angle instead of the "we maliciously deceived consumers" angle? Expected, but still hilarious.

 

If I were a class action lawyer, I would be all over this... that is, if they survive the government first.

 

Wow, this is truly awful. Unreal.

 

The TTB is going to love this

 

"There is just no way we could have known that diluting our beer with fruit puree would affect the ABV. Some things are just beyond science!"

Edit: also doesn't TTB only apply to beer hitting distro? If they sell it direct from the brewery I don't think it applies. I don't think Indiana requires the ABV to be printed on the label either.

 

“6 ounces of our base beer was 8%, then we added 10 ounces of non alcoholic fruit purée. We had no idea this would dilute the alcohol content.”

 

I feel like an idiot now, even just considering the "lacing" these beers leave behind.

 

TTB still applies.

 

You don't need to get TTB label approval though if it isn't going into distribution. Every state has slightly different laws too, some states don't need label approval for distro within the state, so only need label approval for out of state distro.

 

You still can’t label something as 8% and have it be 2.6%. That’s way outside the TTB’s tolerance.

 

Well yeah, I thought people were talking out removing the ABV from the label as a problem. pretty sure that is fine in Indiana. Clearly what they were doing before was against the law.

 

yeah, thats also likely within the range of civil Fraud. If the government doesnt fine them into oblivion, they are gonna face some sort of lawsuit. It seems they might already be preparing for that, since their defense is going to have to be that their ABV labelling wasnt knowingly or recklessly made incorrectly

 

That's going to have to be the defense, but yikes is that thin lol.

 

Interesting, since the TTB doesnt require ABV labelling for beer (its primarily left to state discretion) it looks like there might be a pretty good argument that the federal government wont be able to do much from that point of view. Looking through Chapter 27 of the federal code there isnt any suggestion that fines are possible other than for the warning about the danger of alcohol. Spent a bit of time looking for the requirements in Indiana, but as you might think the code is a mess and its hard to figure out what's happening. If it is true that ABV isnt required in the state, there might also be a good chance that their regulatory body of alcohol doesnt have a remedy either. Basically, its going to come down to criminal and civil fraud if thats the case, and given the difference in burden of proof (and the likelihood that the government cares much less about this than we do) its probably going to come down to a civil case.

 

This seems to be a case for @jesskidden ... TL;DR is that this brewery was advertising beers at 8% that are closer to 2-3%...they got caught & admitted it, but claimed it was an error. Thoughts? Will the TTB get involved?

 

Lets be honest here though, no type of class action will be possible as everyone who bought from 450N illegally resold the beer, and those who ended up with the beer purchased it illegally on the secondary market.

 

450 North Camping Club Vs. 450 North

Which will lead to Angry Secondary Market Neckbeards Vs 450 North Camping Club