450 North Brewing

There are likely enough people who buy their beer and dont resell for their to be a legitimate claim. Only time will tell though I suppose... As a lawyer who's into beer this is about as interesting and fun as my profession can get though.

 

They posted an update on the FB

 

yeah, the real irony of the whole thing is that the people who lost arent even the ones who bought from 450N... its the secondary market.

 

IDK man you need more than like 12 people for a class action right?

 

And everyone saved receipts, right? Plus, by the time attorneys get done people would recover $4 six years from now.

 

I'm curious what kind of effect this is going to have on the brewery. This is some reputation ruining shit right here.

 

Most class actions make very little for the actual people harmed (unless it’s pharmaceutical or mesothelioma type injury). They make a fuck ton for the lawyers who would be the ones driving the lawsuit anyway.

 

New slushee plan: drink a pint and then do a shot of vodka

 

I mean, the argument could be made that they always lose regardless of the brewery.

Regardless, I think we can all agree here though that Common Core Math is to blame for all of this.

 

I'm one that honestly believes that they made a mistake. Why would they risk shooting themselves in the foot on a product that is flying off the shelves? It was always the flavor that sold the slushies, not the abv. There's really no reason for them to have willfully lied in this case.

Honestly, anybody who thought 450N were world class brewers with world class knowledge might have a case here. They aren't. And if you thought they were, that probably says more about you than anything else. This screw up exposes that. But it wasn't fraud, because that implies intent.

Has anybody really been damaged by this incident? Did you honestly not enjoy drinking their beers in spite of it being low abv?

 

Briney Melon Gose + Green Machine.
Ur welcome.

 

1. a representation was made
2. the representation was false
3. that when made, the defendant knew that the representation was false or that the defendant made the statement recklessly without knowledge of its truth
4. that the fraudulent misrepresentation was made with the intention that the plaintiff rely on it
5. that the plaintiff did rely on the fraudulent misrepresentation
6. that the plaintiff suffered harm as a result of the fraudulent misrepresentation

Those are the elements of fraud (give or take). It doesnt matter if you think its the flavor or the ABV that is the primary, or whether they're "world class." The issue is whether it was reckless to calculate ABV, add massive amounts of Puree or juice, and then assume that the ABV would still be the same. If so (which seems almost certainly true given theyre a large beer producer with some amount of basic common sense), they the issue is whether people are harmed by getting beers with way less alcohol then marketed. Again, its almost certain that it does assuming part of the reason people by beer is for the alcohol and they didnt get it.

 

I blame anti-vaxxers.

 

Personally I can't imagine actually believing they (or someone there) were not aware of this. We are not talking a percent or two, that discrepancy in ABV is pretty big in terms of making/brewing beer.

 

What I can’t believe is that they made a XL (8%) and never measured the abv of those finished products before deciding to go along with a XXL (10%) version. Did they just assume that every batch going forward was going to have the same abv? With different adjuncts? Batch abv variations?

 

The points you’re bringing up are damning. The theme of the series essentially became abv related. I’d love to see the actual brew recipes written/typed out at the time to see if/how they were accounting for a higher alcohol content

 

My (completely unprofessional) opinion is they made an 8% base beer... pasteurized it so the yeast we’re dead... added 8oz of fruit purée for every 4oz of beer. Which diluted it down to a 2.6% ABV pint. The fruit never fermented out because the yeast was dead.

total speculation.

 

Beer Temple has beer classes available, like Beer 101. Maybe they could go and learn a thing or two?

 

They are hiding behind ignorance because the truth is far worse. It was fraudulent, plain and simple.

The overwhelming appeal for these wasnt just flavor, it was their “ability” to completely mask a high abv with said flavors.

There is zero chance these would generate as much hype as they have if it was known they were 2.6% from the start

 

The ineptness of the brewery is staggering. If you need to get one measurement right as a brewery, well, they didn't get it right. Not even close.

I'm curious from a pricing perspective. It seems they've sold the XXL (10% advertised ABV) for $25 a 4pk previously. Given that the ABV is more likely around 3-4%, would they have and will they still charge $25 for XXL? Well they might be shameless and charge more now.