Illicit Beer Bottle Caps Bring Feds Down on Calif. Brewer
A beer brewer in a small California town named after a founding citizen and state senator, Abner Weed, has incurred the wrath of federal regulators by his tongue-in-cheek use of the town’s name on bottle caps to help brand his product.
“Try LEGAL weed,” they suggest. Around the rim of the cap is the slogan “A friend in Weed is a Friend Indeed,” reports the Los Angeles Times. The newspaper article also prominently features a large overhead photograph of three bottles.
The problem is, the three words in the center of the caps promote marijuana use, according to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Plus they could also be confusing to consumers, by suggesting the beer contains an illicit substance, when it doesn’t.
The feds have told Vaune Dillman, the 61-year-old owner of the Mt. Shasta Brewing Co., to change his bottle caps or face potential fines and other regulatory sanctions.
Happy about the promotion of their town, locals have tended to side with Dillman, the Times reports.
“It’s just plain goofy to me the federal government is making so much of a fuss over this,” says Mayor Chuck Sutton. “I can sort of understand their point, but it all seems a little overboard.”
