Friday, May 23, 2008

Yellow fizz water by any other name ....

When I read first read the headline I thought that someone might actually have tried passing off some cheap beer as one of our beloved craft beers. Fortunately, that was not the case, and it's rather a funny tale if you ask me. In "Agents: Bar Owners Switched Cheap For Expensive Beers":
North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement agents said they charged two men, David Edward Essa, 34, and Robert Christopher Martin, 35, both of Greensboro, with obtaining money by false pretenses after an investigation revealed the two had mislabeled kegs of beer and represented them as more expensive brands.
Essa and Martin own three local businesses: the University General Store on Mendenhall Street, Spring Garden Bar on Spring Garden Street and Westerwood Tavern on Guilford Avenue. Agents said they investigated the three businesses after receiving complaints that employees were switching labels on the beer.
Agents said the analysis of beer ordered covertly from the University General Store and the Spring Garden Bar revealed that the establishments were trying to pass off the cheaper Busch Light as Bud Light. [emphasis added]
Analysis of beer bought at Westerwood Tavern revealed the bar was selling Coors Light when customers thought they were ordering Keystone Light.

I wonder what sort of analysis the North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement agents did to make this determination. It likely requires sensitive equipment to separate one flavorless beer from another. It's probably safe to assume the investigation was initiated by consumer complaints. Perhaps light American lager drinkers do indeed have discerning palates.

2 comments:

  1. I think they used highly trained dogs for the testing. Yellow labs? :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chris,

    There are just too many ways to run with that comment!

    Cheers.

    ReplyDelete

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