beernesday

my growler article from last november: FREE THE HOPS! REBECCA WHYMAN •  NOVEMBER 24, 2017 iStock photo Of the four ingredients in beer, hops are the New World’s contribution. It seems rather fitting then, that North America has its economic paws  allll  over hops. Trademarks, patents, royalties – how are these business-y things having their way with our beloved hops? It must be big beer’s fault! I understand why you’d want to make hops proprietary – it takes time, effort and money to painstakingly develop a new hop, test it eight ways to Sunday, and devote acreage to propagating it. It can take 15-20 years before any money starts coming in, and then on only a fraction of your experiments. But do you really need 20 years of royalties to recoup that investment? Off the backs of your growers and the lovely brewers who exalt your wonder-hop? C’mon, only big beer would do such a greedy thing. Experimental breeding has brought us wonder-hops that can do it all: h...

wow, it's another wee one this week what's up with the lack of fun beer stuff ending up in my feeds? why millennials go to beer festivals is craft beer about to go to war with itself? pop stars and craft beer and trademarking and branding

Trademark Wars: Turning Negatives into Positives  Saranac and Prism Urge Brewers to Create Win-Win Relationships   Utica, NY -It's become a reality in brewing: a brewery crafts a new beer recipe and then is confronted with the impossible task of selecting a unique name. All brewers entered the craft industry for the pursuit of good beer, but now an ever-increasing amount of time and resource are being tied up because of trademarks. When you have over 3,200 craft breweries vying for names, you can imagine the trouble in coming up with something distinctive. In some cases, breweries only discover that names have been taken when the beer is already on shelves or tap handles. In the worst of these cases, lawsuits ensue and no one benefits. However, with all the recent trademark excitement, we have found a refreshing reverse in direction and it goes by the name Prism. Saranac released Prism White Ale, a 2014 spring seasonal, without the knowledge that Philadelphia-...

i wish i had seen this fabulous response to a lawyer with respect to a beer name trademark when the whole cascadia mess got messy oh, and gotta love craft brewers! i will definitely find myself some freetail beers next time i'm in san antonio, texas (which i have been to, but not in the most recent decade, so its high time to go back)