For as much talk as there is about craft brewery unity, all is not always fine and dandy between independent brewers. Shipyard Brewing Company in Maine is suing Logboat Brewing Company in Missouri, accusing the brewery of copyright infringement and defamation. Turns out Anheuser-Busch InBev isn’t the only brewery that craft can mock.
Shipyard first sent Logboat a cease and desist order in 2016 for Logboat’s Shiphead Ginger Wheat, saying it was too similar to Shipyard’s beers that use “ship” and “head.” Shipyard followed that up with a lawsuit in May 2017, according to ABC.
This week, Shipyard amended the lawsuit to add that Logboat “directed a deluge of negative reviews on Shipyard’s Facebook page shortly after they sued,” ABC writes. Which, when you look at it, seems likely — 189 of 193 comments on Shipyard’s Facebook were angry statements about the lawsuit.
There’s no proof that the negative comments came primarily from Logboat employees. It all goes to show you that craft attacking craft doesn’t end well, and just serves as a distraction from the beer. Brewers should have learned that from the Lagunitas lawsuit against Sierra Nevada in 2015. If breweries don’t focus on the beer, that means worse beer for all of us and keeps brewers from going outside the lines for fear of being sued. Can’t we just all get along?
R2D2, meet Heineken
Heineken is channeling R2D2 to help small businesses serve draft beer. The company’s new “Blade” machine is a tabletop draught system with a Star Wars-esque round head that Heineken is calling the “Nespresso for beer,” according to AdAge.
Blade costs around $650 and holds 8-liter kegs that can be reordered like coffee pods. Heineken designed it for small European shops that want to sell beer but can’t fit or afford a full keg system.
You don’t have to tell me twice. Yeah, it looks weird, but it’s hard to beat the satisfaction of a freshly poured beer. When it makes it to the States, my only request is that it pours Lagunitas.
Punching Nazis where it hurts
A brewery can’t physically punch a Nazi, but it can punch a hole in attendance at a Nazi’s speech.
Alligator Brewing Company in Gainesville, Florida is offering free beer for any unused tickets to white supremacist Richard Spencer’s speech at the University of Florida, Orlando Weekly reports. Two tickets equal one draft beer.
“Tickets to the event are free and available to the public (with proof of ID) beginning Saturday at noon,” Alligator Brewing announced in a Facebook post on October 12. “So starting then, and all weekend long, for every two tickets you bring in, we’ll trade you for a free Alligator Brewing draft beer. Those tickets and spots will be disposed of, leaving two more empty seats in the Philips Center.”
The brewery also added: “We unfortunately can’t stop him from bringing his hate to Gainesville but we can empty the room so his disgusting message goes unheard.”
Spencer’s speech is at 2:30 p.m. on October 19 at the Phillips Center for Performing Arts and will cost UF $500,000 in security costs.
Whenever I start to lose faith in human kind, a brewery finds a way to cheer me up.
