Having a Super Bowl party? You might be paying a premium for your alcohol. But before you do that, you should know that sometimes the “premium” claim on the bottle doesn’t live up to the quality inside. Its pays to know what’s behind the label.
“Imported” Several “imported” beers are in fact brewed in the USA. A few examples: Foster’s, “Australian for beer,” has been made in Texas since 1993; Red Stripe, delivering “the taste of Jamaica,” is brewed in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania; and Beck’s, “the world’s No. 1 German beer,” is in the midst of a class action lawsuit over deceptive advertising that it’s still imported from Germany — despite being brewed in the U.S. with domestic ingredients.“Craft” The craft beer market has flourished in recent years as more beer drinkers choose to go small. But exactly how small is a craft brewery? Not too small, according to the Brewers Association, which caps annual production at 6 million barrels or less. The threshold for the craft label was at 2 million barrels but was bumped up to 6 million after craft beer pioneer Sam Adams sold 2.7 million barrels in 2012. It may yet rise again if Sam Adams breaks the 6 million barrels threshold. Meanwhile, a class-action lawsuit filed in April 2015 against MillerCoors alleges that the beer giant falsely advertises its non-craft Blue Moon wheat beer as “artfully crafted.”“Handmade” The word “handmade” doesn’t exactly evoke images of hulking machinery churning out hundreds of thousands of cases of booze. But a pending false advertising class action lawsuit against Tito’s Handmade Vodka alleges that that’s the reality behind the “fiction” of the brand. The suit claims, “…the vodka is made via a highly-mechanized process, which is devoid of human hands.” Maker’s Mark faces a similar class action lawsuit for its own “handmade” claims.“Old-fashioned” The lawsuit against Tito’s also alleges that the bottle’s label misleads consumers into thinking that the vodka was made in an old-fashioned sort of way that plays on feelings of nostalgia. The label reads, “Crafted in an Old Fashioned Pot Still by America’s Original Microdistillery.” While that may have been the case in the past, the lawsuit claims, Tito’s now produces its liquor in massive floor-to-ceiling stills at a rate of 500 cases an hour.“Artisanal” Dozens of so-called “small-batch” distillers who claim to make their own varieties of artisanal whiskey have actually been getting their spirits in bulk from large factories that supply multiple brands, the Daily Beast reported last summer. In particular, one factory in Indiana has become “a one-stop shop for marketers who want to bottle their own brand of spirits without having to distill the product themselves,” the article notes.“Abbey Ale” A class-action lawsuit against Anheuser-Busch alleges that the brewer’s Leffe beer is misleadingly marketed as an “abbey ale,” that is, one that is brewed in small quantities in abbeys under the supervision of monks. In reality, the lawsuit alleges, the beer is mass produced in automated factories.
