At least MillerCoors’ Blue Moon is, after a judge threw out a lawsuit saying that there are definable standards for what is a ‘craft’ brew. Until better criteria are brought to the court, all bets are off.Blue Moon is a craft beer now. Budweiser is a craft beer. You’re a craft beer. Everything is craft beer for now.
That’s the de facto ruling from a U.S. District Court now that a class action lawsuit has been dismissed attempting to call out MillerCoors for labeling Blue Moon (which they produce at a rate of over 70 million barrels a year) a craft beer.
Judge Gonzalo Curiel wants a better template for what does and does not constitute a craft beer before he says Blue Moon—or Bud Light Lime, for that matter—can’t allude to itself as being craft brewed in advertising.
This conflict has been long brewing (sorry), as a growing number of small brewers try to distinguish their product from the nameless (and arguably tasteless) products of larger companies. “Craft” was supposed to be the term of endearment, as well as a piece of jargon (like Champagne or “bottled in bond”) that set certain standards of production quality and rarity—standards the big guys have no interest in pursuing if they can avoid it.
Losers of the class action suit include the idea of clear labeling standards, and the Brewers Association, which considers a beer craft only if it (a) “Produce[s] less than 6 million barrels of beer annually; (b) [is] less than 25 percent owned or controlled by a non-craft brewer; and (c) Make[s] beer using only traditional or innovative brewing ingredients.”
The lawsuit, filed in California by lead plaintiff Evan Parent, alleged that Blue Moon was conspicuously over-priced in comparison with the rest of the MillerCoors portfolio, that it does not meet requirements agreed upon by the Brewers association, and that it misleads customers by disguising the ownership…CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY AT THEDAILYBEAST.COM
