Beer Buzz –Negative Claims Against 4 Hands Brewing Lead to Senior Exec Resignation At Schlafly Beer And More!

The beer biz never sleeps at American Craft Beer. And here’s more of what’s been happening in the beer world, while you were drinking your way through the first week of December.

Senior Schlafly Exec Resigns As Adverse Claims Against Competitor Surface (St Louis, MO) – Schlafly Beer has issued a public apology to 4 Hands Brewing Co. after a senior Schlafly executive “caused negative and misleading information to be circulated” about 4 Hands “through a derogatory paragraph about the company in an anonymous newsletter mailed recently to local bars and restaurants,” according to a joint statement from the two craft brewers.

The derogatory item, which was posted in Brew IQ, a newsletter that was “mailed to an unknown number of area restaurants and bars in November, makes a barely coded reference to 4 Hands facing a “dilemma in the #MeToo era because of the possible meaning of its name” according to the St louis Post Dispatch.

According to the joint statement, an unnamed senior executive has resigned from Schlafly which coincides with a confirmation from the brewery last week, that CEO James Pendegraft had resigned.

Pendegraft joined Schlafly Beer in 2015, succeeding the brewery’s co-founder Dan Kopman (now at Heavy Seas Beer in Baltimore) as CEO.

Words To Drink By (St Louis, MO) – “We were embarrassed to learn of these actions and sincerely apologize to 4 Hands Brewing Company. Such actions are inconsistent with the core values on which we were founded and which have defined Schlafly for 27 years.” Tom Schlafly / Schlafly Beer

New Jersey Craft Brewery Legislation Goes To The Dogs (Trenton, NJ) – New legislation that would allow dogs to accompany their human friends into craft breweries in New Jersey, has passed in the house and will advance to the full state Senate for a vote after it passed the Senate’s Law and Public Safety Committee.

The dog and small business-friendly legislation, which was introduced by  Kip Bateman (R-16th District) and Mike Doherty (R-23^rd), met with minimal opposition (after all who doesn’t support dogs and craft beer?), and would allow a dogs in the sampling and tasting areas of New Jersey breweries according My Central Jersey.

But the dog friendly legislation also has a cranky bureaucratic side that made us laugh…

• Only clean dogs will be allowed. (sure)
• Any messes or accidents must be promptly cleaned and sanitized. (shit happens)
• Staff members would not be permitted to have direct contact with dogs while on duty, and would be required to immediately wash their hands should direct contact occur. (read: no petting the dogs, no matter how cute they are)

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