MillerCoors Sued for Claiming Blue Moon Is a Craft Beer

[Misfit]

http://www.eater.com/2015/5/1/8528771/blue-moon-lawsuit-craft-beer-claims-millercoors

Is Blue Moon a craft beer? California resident and angry beer drinker Evan Parent doesn't believe so. According to court documents, Parent has filed a class action lawsuit against MillerCoors, the company that owns Blue Moon. His suit claims that MillerCoors markets Blue Moon as a craft beer when it is in fact a mass produced beer.

The Brewers Association — an organization "dedicated to promoting and protecting American craft brewers" — defines craft breweries as small and independent companies that produce less than six million barrels of beer each year. The suit argues that because MillerCoors has eight major breweries across the U.S. and produces 76 million barrels annually, it cannot qualify as a craft brewery.

 

[b23hqb]

Six million barrels????? If a small and independent company brews six million barrels a year, I would not call that small by any standard. In the US, a barrel of beer is 31 gallons. That would make small craft companies brewing about 186 million gallons of suds per year. That's a lot of beer.

https://www.brewersassociation.org/...sociation-announces-2013-craft-brewer-growth/

(2013 stats)

Additionally, the number of operating breweries in the U.S. in 2013 totaled 2,822, with 2,768 of those considered craft, demonstrating that craft breweries make up 98 percent of all U.S. operating breweries. This count includes 413 new brewery openings and 44 closings. Combined with already existing and established breweries and brewpubs, craft brewers provided 110,273 jobs, an increase of almost 2,000 from the previous year.

Parent may have a case.

 

[CrashTest]

Does "The Brewers Association" have a patent on the term "Craft Brew" and is Blue Moon and Coors affiliated with The Brewer's Association? If not, they can probably call it whatever they want, as long as they're in compliance with ATF rules.

 

[Larry Gude]

Six million barrels????? If a small and independent company brews six million barrels a year, I would not call that small by any standard. In the US, a barrel of beer is 31 gallons. That would make small craft companies brewing about 186 million gallons of suds per year. That's a lot of beer. .

Well, the one standard it is being called 'small' by is the Coors/Miller/Ibev/HellaBig standard.

So, 186 million gallons or 24 billion ounces or 1.5 billion pints. That's only 5 beers per person per year in 'merica.

 

[PrchJrkr]

Does "The Brewers Association" have a patent on the term "Craft Brew" and is Blue Moon and Coors affiliated with The Brewer's Association? If not, they can probably call it whatever they want, as long as they're in compliance with ATF rules.

tomato = tamahto
gay marriage = fast track to hell

What's in a name? :shrug:

Making beer is a craft. All beer is craft brew.

 

[glhs837]

Yep, trade group definition, no legal force. Shut up and sit down, Mr Parent.