Alabama lifts ban on controversial beers

Two beers brewed by the Founder Brewing Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan recently saw the bans on their controversial custom labels – Dirty Bastard and Backwoods Bastard – lifted by the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (ABC).

According to the Montgomery Advertiser, a local paper, the decision was based on a state law that does not allow ads for alcoholic beverages to show a person “posed in an immodest or sensuous manner” nor contain any profanity or offensive language to be sold in stores. This is despite the fact that a brand of wine known as “Fat Bastard” had been on shelves in Alabama for years and if the state had continued to ban the two beers, it would have to take a second look at the wine label.

“No one wanted to do that because it had been on the shelves for years and years,” said ABC attorney Bob Martin on reevaluating the wine.

The Advertiser also likens the situation to a similar controversy with the ABC back in 2009, when the state banned Cycles Gladiator wines due to a nude nymph being displayed on the wine label, which was a copy of an 1895 French poster that advertised Gladiator bicycles.

The ban drew national attention and caused the Hahn Family Wines – the wine label’s parent company – to send the ABC a framed copy of the poster saying that the ban quadrupled their sales nationwide. The company added a toga to the nymph on custom Alabama labels, thus complying with the law.

If other breweries or wineries wish to create high quality custom labels that will attract consumer attention – regardless of the content or title – they may want to invest in a Primera LX900 color label printer that can create these high quality labels.