Ok, just want to hear what you have to say about this, if never heard of this before. I'm at my local brewery, and was kidding the owners about jumping on the seltzer train. So they told they are brewing a basic malt liquor and then add the flavoring. They don't add alcohol to it. They're still selling it as a "seltzer" though, for obvious reasons. But sounds like beer to me . It's 5% abv
Did they say "malt liquor" or "malt beverage" ? (They are - or, more specifically, they can be two different things.) According to the TTB:
They said malt liquor, definitely . I was thinking the same thing after I left about "malt beverages"....
Well, maybe they're just old. Black's Law Dictionary, p. 752, in the 19th century defined the term as follows: Even post-Repeal, many states' ABC laws were written with "malt liquor" as the general term (along with "vinous liquor" for wine and "spirituous liquors" for spirits). Note "can" - in general, all malt liquors are malt beverages but not all malt beverages are malt liquors. On top of which, there's the legal definition of "malt liquor" on the Federal Level (BAM): Which kinda says it's anything a brewer wants... so, nothing stopping a brewer using their malt liquor recipe to make a seltzer.
Right. It's flavored malt liquor . . . . It's flavored seltzer . . . . It doesn't matter. Either name, we're not going to drink it!
