If the only things certain in life are death and taxes, then the only things certain in craft beer are inspectors and taxes. For brewers looking to release a new label, that means working with the once-dreaded Taxman.<\/p>\n
Although it can look daunting, the process of label approval through the federal government has become more streamlined in recent years, and the brewers and designers we spoke with agree that once they narrow down some basic rules, receiving approval is relatively painless.<\/p>\n
First off, who oversees beer labels? That\u2019s the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, otherwise known as the TTB, which emerged in 2003 with the reorganization of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The TTB collects taxes, admittedly, but it also serves an important protective function. Its mission, according to their website<\/a>, is \u201cto protect the consumer of alcohol beverages through compliance programs that are based upon education and enforcement of the industry to ensure an effectively regulated marketplace; and to assist industry members to understand and comply with Federal tax, product, and marketing requirements associated with the commodities we regulate.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s a government-speak way to say that by creating and enforcing specific and enforceable guidelines for things such as beer labels, the TTB is protecting American consumers from possible harm caused by unclear or potentially misleading labels. For example, in order to get a Certificate of Label Approval\/Exemption (COLA) to sell beer across state lines, a list of every ingredient in a beer needs to be sent into the TTB.<\/p>\n Denise Ford Sawadogo is familiar with this process. As co-owner of Montclair Brewery<\/a> in New Jersey, she and her husband have several beers that fall outside of the basic \u201cwater, malt, hops, yeast\u201d formula allowed in the general COLA list. The TTB requires a form<\/a> for any malt beverage product \u201cto which fruit, fruit juice, fruit concentrate, herbs, spices, honey, maple syrup, or other food materials\u201d are added.<\/p>\n Montclair\u2019s BaoBiere, a 7.8-percent blonde ale that uses the fruit of the baobab tree, falls into the TTB\u2019s special approval process, as does its Fragile Like a Bomb, a 7.8-percent golden ale infused with baobab and lavender. The baobab fruit, from the tree native to Africa, Madagascar, and Australia, reflected Montclair\u2019s owners\u2019 African-American heritage, but was outside the list of pre-approved ingredients allowed by the TTB. Despite the extra forms required, Ford Sawadogo says the process was still pretty quick, taking only, \u201cmaybe two weeks, if memory serves me right.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, it\u2019s not entirely painless. That two weeks was for approval for the formula for Montclair\u2019s beers. Brewers do also have to submit their beer label to the TTB at the same time for approval. This can cause a few trip-ups, says Ford Sawadogo. Figuring out what can and cannot be included on a label, and what must be on the label, can be a challenge, and \u201cthere is always some issue\u2014and it is very inconsistent. It probably depends on who reviewed the label,\u201d she says. \u201cEven something that was approved for another beer that wasn\u2019t an issue is now all of a sudden an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n Missy Cooke from Old Nation Brewing Company<\/a> in Michigan agrees that inconsistency is a problem when it comes to their labels. \u201cRegulations are interpreted differently by different TTB employees, regulations change, and sometimes things are approved that technically didn\u2019t follow a certain rule,\u201d she says. \u201cIn theory, if it works once, it will work again\u2014but not always.\u201d In her experience, even if a label looks identical to one that has been approved before, \u201cthe TTB doesn\u2019t look at approved labels as having set some sort of precedent.\u201d On the FAQ section of its website, the TTB provides a list of allowable changes to an approved label, which includes deleting non-mandatory information or artwork, deleting or changing an optional barrel age statement, or changing award statements or brewers\u2019 signatures.\u00a0<\/p>\n That makes sense, since the TTB has more than one agent on the approvals team. That wasn\u2019t always the case: until his retirement in 2015, the aptly nicknamed Kent \u201cBattle\u201d Martin was the sole person in charge of label approval at the TTB. Dubbed the \u201cbeer bottle dictator<\/a>\u201c by The Daily Beast, Martin reviewed tens of thousands of label applications a year, and was known to deny applications for nitpicky, even pedantic, reasons. Nowadays, the department in charge of COLA applications has several employees, so there is no guarantee that nearly identical labels by the same brewer will all get approved.<\/p>\n As the creative director and partner of CODO Design<\/a>, a graphic design firm that designs dozens of craft beer labels, Cody Fague has a few pointers for new and seasoned brewers. First, he says, eliminate abbreviations. IPA for \u201cIndia pale ale\u201d will be universally rejected, as will ABV for \u201calcohol by volume.\u201d When in doubt, spell it out, he says, \u201ceven if everyone on the planet knows what an IPA is by now.\u201d Details such as these are the \u201cticky tacky stuff\u201d that Fague and his partners help their clients navigate.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a consumer protection body, they\u2019re more interested in making sure that none of your advertising copy on the packages suggests that it\u2019s going to have any kind of physical or pharmaceutical effects,\u201d says Fague of the TTB. He was once rejected for a label on an English strong ale because a TTB agent didn\u2019t like the word \u201cstrong\u201d and thought it implied that the beer would make drinkers physically strong.<\/p>\n The TTB can get its hackles up with use of any claims to health benefits. In its FAQ statements, the agency notes that the word \u201cclean\u201d on a malt beverage product might \u201ccreate the misleading impression that consumption of the alcohol beverage will have health benefits, or that the health risks otherwise associated with alcohol consumption will be mitigated\u2026We would consider those claims to be misleading health-related statements.\u201d While the word \u201cclean\u201d isn\u2019t expressly forbidden, Fague notes that it\u2019s probably wisest to avoid any claims that imply that alcohol is good for the consumer.<\/p>\n That said, and taking all these concepts into consideration, Fague says that \u201cat the federal level, they\u2019re not going to get into illustration style or colors.\u201d<\/p>\n Once a beer gets to the state level, that might go out the window. In New Hampshire, some consumers are lobbying for new restrictions on cartoon characters on beer <\/a>labels<\/a>. The law would prohibit the depiction of toys, robots, cartoons, and fictional animals or creatures on adult beverage labels. While it\u2019s unclear whether existing labels with these depictions would be required to change, in some cases, breweries have agreed to change their labels (e.g. Concord Craft changed its Finding NEIPA label, which depicted cartoon fish similar to those in the movie \u201cFinding Nemo,\u201d after talking with the state of New Hampshire). While he understands that the COLA process is in place to protect minors, Fague is keeping a close eye on the situation there.<\/p>\n![\"montclair](\"https:\/\/cdn.craftbeer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/20240530172213\/beer-labels-from-montclair-brewing.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n![\"baobiere](\"https:\/\/cdn.craftbeer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/20240530170902\/baobiere-golden-ale-can.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n![\"beer](\"https:\/\/cdn.craftbeer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/20240530171307\/beer-cans-designed-by-coda.jpg\")
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