Beer Buzz – Carling Lies About Its Beer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Long Trail Brewing, And More!

American Craft Beer|August 28th, 2017|

The beer biz never sleeps at American Craft Beer. And here’s just some of what’s been happening in the world of craft beer, while you were drinking your way into Monday.

Carling Admits To Lying To Customers (UK) – Molson Coors has admitted in court that they’ve been lying to their customers about the actual alcohol content of a beer that they produce for the UK. And that they did it to avoid a multi-million dollar tax bill.

Carling, the UK’s biggest selling lager, is advertised as having 4% alcohol by volume (ABV) but in actuality it’s been brewed at 3.7% since 2012.

The “We Lied” Admission from the brewery’s US-based owner, reportedly came during a trial brought by HMCR (like America’s IRS) which centered on claims “that Carling had underpaid tax by more than £50m between September 2012 and January 2015.”

Molson Coors admitted in last week’s hearing that they’d reduced Carling’s ABV in order to dodge a sizable tax hit that kicks in after 4% but insisted that their customers hadn’t actually been misled since EU law allows beer to have a natural variation of 0.5 %.

Words To Drink By (Weimer, DE) – “I’m not upset that you lied to me…I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.” Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher and cultural critic

Long Trail Takes “Take A Hike” (Bridgewater Corners, VT) – Last Wednesday Long Trail Brewing took Burton Snowboards to court in a dispute over the use of the slogan “Take a Hike,” which the brewery claims to have been using on apparel, beer and a variety of other goods since the early ’90s.

But that dispute appears to have been quickly (and thankfully) resolved…

On Friday Long Trail issued a statement explaining that both companies had come to an agreement. Burton has agreed to discontinue their use of ‘Take a Hike’ on its apparel,” and added that “Both brands share a mutual respect for each other’s role in Vermont culture, and are happy to put this business issue behind them.”