Hershey's demands money from Side Lot Brewing over beer brewed w/ Milk Duds and Jolly Ranchers

The brewery playing the role of victim is not a good look.

 

I don’t get it. What is the line that they crossed? If I have an ice cream shop and make a Milk Dud sundae, can Hershey’s sue me?

 

The image above is the reason why things turned out the way they did. I have some sympathy for a small business owner in the hospitality industry who gets hit with a financial penalty in 2020 due to a giant company... but the craft beer industry needs a damn wake-up call for fostering the environment that leads to a brewer putting out product like the above.

(and the recent Yuengling beer is certainly influencing some decision making from the big company)

From the article:

I wouldn't say the "creativity" is endless. There's only a finite amount of '80s children's toys, breakfast cereals, snacks/candies, hip hop albums, heavy metal albums, wrestlers, and sodas that can be used to drive demand for beer.

 

Is that 'lumberjack' using his forefinger or his middle finger?

Cheers!

 

It's crazy how rampant IP theft is in this industry. People think there's nothing wrong with it. Parody is one thing, but there are way too many straight up rip offs.

Then there's businesses like this. I keep waiting for a post from him about being slapped with a big lawsuit. Basically all of his products are rip offs and he has a huge following.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I highly doubt he's licensing all of that art.

 

Maybe this will scare breweries away from putting novelty junk food in their beer?

 

1.) I'm surprised it took this long.
2.) I'm even more surprised Stone isn't involved somehow.

 

Congregation, let us pray.

 

While I personally would hope you are correct here I doubt it. The Pastry Bros love their candy.

Cheers!

 

Doubtful, but maybe they will be more careful with how they market it.

It's even crazier when you consider candy, toys, breakfast cereals, etc. marketed to children are appearing on adult-only alcoholic beverages. I would expect the original company to be sensitive to the association of kids to alcohol, regardless of whether they ever intend to enter the brand into the alcohol market.

EDIT: to be clear... I'm not trying to be PC police. I really don't care other than I find it very gimmicky. I'm just surprised more companies haven't acted against brewers.

 

Maybe because the business leaders considered the calculus of legal expenses involved?

I am 100% sure that Hershey's expended waaay more than $8,500 that they will potentially receive in compensation from Side Lot. If this case stops other breweries in the future perhaps Hershey's can justify what they have spent here?

Cheers!

 

Wow that's blatant copyright infringement. Did he honestly think he could just get away with that because he's "small"? Him playing the victim here is imho the worst thing he could possibly do. Admit you f***ed up, apologize, and brew some good brews without the gimmicks next time. If you really can't pay for your mistake, maybe try asking your patrons who enjoyed those beers for help? Be honest with them about your situation, maybe try fundraising or something along those lines.

 

Even if Hershey's is billed $850 an hour for this, it doesn't sound like it's gotten to 10 hours of legal work yet. I'd also imagine that a company like Hershey's probably has an IP specific law firm on retainer for situations like this.

I think that we don't see more suits because, even though it seems ubiquitous to us in our beer nerd bubble, this stuff is mostly happening at super niche little joints. The vast majority of people don't ever encounter beers from places like sidelot

 

Maybe? Maybe not?

Cheers!

 

It disturbs me that a brewery would brew a beer with Jolly Ranchers; very flavorful candy, but in a beer?

 

Brewers' yeast readily converts simple sugars into alcohol, what's left of the candy would likely be barely detectable against the other malt, hops, and yeast flavors. Bigger Belgian-style beers commonly use candi sugar, so it's not without precedence. Only the marketing [gimmick] of Jolly Ranchers is new.

 

That is exactly what I was thinking. It sounds pretty disgusting. What kind of mind thought to do that?

 

Part of the reason I’m not more sympathetic. They also tagged Hershey’s and Jolly Rancher in their Facebook/IG marketing, which strikes me as a bit shady.

To be fair, a fan did start a gofundme but the owner asked them to shut it down and donate money to a local food pantry instead. None of this seems malicious, just too nonchalant about appropriating others’ artwork which, as many have noted, is a big problem in this industry (don’t get me started on beers named after rap songs/lyrics).

 

I dunno, the artificial flavoring (and coloring) of the candy would be present, no? Similar to a fruited beer, but much less appealing.

 

They own enough candy brands, that maybe they think making an example here will stop others from infringing on their other brands in the future. It's a strategy that can work too. Disney products generally are not infringed upon [by brewers or any industry] because Disney is well known to be extremely protective of their IPs. Needless to say Disney has a lot of IP, but they probably save money because many potential infringers don't dare.

"Speak softly and carry a big stick will go far." -Theodore Roosevelt

Relatedly, I'm still waiting for a brewer to hear from Nintendo, who are also known for being very protective/litigious about their IP.

 

Based on my experience with beers brewed with honey, maple syrup, and other simple sugar additions I would be surprised if much of the Jolly Rancher fruit character survived the brewing process, but I would have to try it myself to be sure.

 

A similar mind to those that brewed beers using:

· Carvel Cookie Puss: Captain Lawrence Brewing, the Cookie O’Puss stout

· Krispy Kreme Donuts: Hidden Springs and Arkane Aleworks

· Edible Glitter: DuClaw

· Whale Testicles: Stedji Brewery

I could go on and on and…

Cheers!

 

Nah. The next guy will just call his beer a Mylck Bubz stout.

 

This just makes me appreciate Reinheitsgebot more.

 

Yeah, there's a bunch of rip offs going on with these goofy candy kid beers. Milk Duds and Jolly Rancher beer does not even come close to sound like something I would ever taste. These are all together very odd times indeed. I am hopelessly stuck in a past that has served me well. I just want a Munich Lowenbrau as a function of nostalgia and because I have loved the beer and cannot get it now.

 

The difference here being the plethora of article flavorings in Jolly Rancher candies. I have zero idea how these chemicals 'react' to the boiling and fermentation processes.

If these artificial flavoring are anything like a McDonalds hamburger & fries maybe they 'survive' anything?

https://www.kidsnews.com.au/health/...s/news-story/879758af14c9ae701004184e82c9c1d3

Cheers!

P.S. Has there been a beer(s) brewed with hamburgers & fries yet?

 

https://www.beersofeurope.co.uk/beer/country/germany/maisel-and-friends-choco-porter

Not related but when I tasted this beer, my first thought was Hershey’s.

 

And to think. All he would have had to do is call the beer "Cream" Duds, "Moo Juice" Duds or "Lactose" Duds or something and he probably would have been fine. Oh and NOT use the fricking Milk Duds logo right off the box. lol

 

Thank you for the added information.

 

I'm afraid that it might just suggest to Hershey's competitors that there's an untapped market of "creative" breweries for their products. (Hershey, of course, already made their deal with Yuengling).

 

If you put Milk Duds in beer you deserve it. The beer. The lawsuit. The bad publicity.
All of it.

If you are putting Milk Duds in beer I suspect you spent your entire freshman year with a wedgie.
Idiots. Times like this I respect the Reinheitsgebot all the more.

On a side note, has anyone in the Dairy industry come after Hershey's for labeling their non-dairy junk food as Milk?

 

Not yet, but DFH is itching for the chance.

 

Hopefully they will have the business sense to just brand their beer with "hamburger" and "fries" and make zero mention of "McDonald's".

And don't get cute with any symbols that look like arches!

Cheers!

 

Jolly Ranchers... did they rebrew a Zima clone and attempt to make it palatable?

 

Almost

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/25314/293897/