Rumor Mill – Beer Name Litigation, New Hardywood Park Craft Brewery And More!

Yikes, February’s just flying by…and clearly the craft beer biz isn’t slowing down anytime soon. But no worries, Rumor Mill is always on the case, keeping you plugged in into all the beer news and lifestyle that matters. Plus we’ve an all-important update on what we’ve been drinking lately and you don’t want to miss that!

Hardywood Park Opens Pilot Brewery In Charlottesville (Richmond, VA) – Hardywood Park is opening a new pilot brewery and taproom in Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend that is will be helmed by the brewery’s Kevin Storm.

The New Charlottesville Operation is compact yet formidable and features a 3.5-barrel Premier Stainless brewhouse where new experimental beers will be developed and served on-site for patrons to taste and share their feedback. And the more popular experimentals may be considered for wider production in the future, especially once Hardywood’s new Goochland-based brewery is up and running.

 

Words To Drink By (Richmond, VA) – “Our new Charlottesville innovation brewery marks the beginning of a new chapter for Hardywood.”  – Hardywood Co-founder Eric McKay

 

Brewery vs Winery In Naming Conflict (Minnesota) – It’s been a while (thankfully) since we reported on any beer naming conflicts. And we don’t think that we’ve yet to cover a naming conflict that involved a brewery and a major winery, but that is what just happened recently up in Minneapolis.

It Was A Surprise when Modist Brewing was contacted by E.J. Gallo Winery’s legal team and informed that the company felt that ModistToats Pale Ale’s name to closely resembled the name their uber-popular champagne Tott’s and strongly suggested that the young brewery make a change.

Toats Becomes Toast – Rather than entering into what would be a long and expensive legal battle against the winery giant, the North Loop artisan brewery took the “high” road, and will be retiring their oat-forward brew that we’ll be celebrating all weekend.

 

What We’ve Been Drinking Lately (Washington, DC) – Last night we hit up a retired year-round from Modist Brewing that will soon become a collectable. Modist Toats WAS a 5% ABV American Pale Ale that WAS brewed using an abundance of oats. Toats Pale Ale, now sadly toast, will be greatly missed.

Modist photo credit: Modist Brewing

Got Something You Think We Need To Know About? Send Your Press Releases to: [email protected]