Siskiyou County

BEER'S USE OF 'WEED' FALLING FLAT

Sacramento -- Vaune Dillmann thought the wording on his bottle caps
was just a clever play on the name of the Siskiyou County town where
he brews his beer - Weed.

Federal alcohol regulators thought differently. They have ordered
Dillmann to stop selling beer bottles with caps that read "Try Legal Weed."

The dispute started in February when Dillmann sent the proposed label
for his latest beer, Lemurian Lager, to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax
and Trade Bureau for approval. The agency, which regulates the
industry, asked for some changes to the label, along with a sample bottle cap.

Dillmann obliged, sending the caps he has been using for his five
current beers.

The agency responded that the message on the caps amounted to a drug
reference. In a letter explaining its decision, the agency said the
wording could "mislead consumers about the characteristics of the
alcoholic beverage."

Dillmann scoffs at the notion that his label has anything to do with
smoking pot.

"I've never tried marijuana in my life," he told the Associated Press
on Wednesday. "I don't advocate that. It's just our town's name."

The town of 3,000, sitting beneath Mount Shasta, takes its name from
Abner Weed, a timber baron who opened a lumber mill there in 1901 and
eventually was elected to the state Senate.

Dillmann, 61, started the Mount Shasta Brewing Co. in 2004. He said
he has always used the town's name on his beers.

His bottle labels follow a long tradition of exploiting the town's
name. Even city officials do it.

A sign posted on the way out of town reads, "Temporarily Out of
Weed," while another says "100 Percent Pure Weed." Dillmann noted
those examples in an appeal letter he sent to the alcohol bureau.

Once, Dillmann said, his wife, a former teacher, was delayed on a
field trip to San Francisco as tourists clamored to pose next to the
school bus, which said "Weed High."

But illegal drugs are no joke to the federal agency, which maintains
meticulous rules about labeling. Drug references on alcoholic
beverages were banned in 1994, agency spokesman Art Resnick said.

"We protect consumers of alcohol beverages against misleading
advertising and labeling. That's one of our primary functions," he
said. He said the agency is reviewing Dillmann's appeal.

The Brewers Association, based in Boulder, Colo., which represents
1,100 craft brewers nationwide, said the bureau has become more
aggressive in recent years. It has gone after brewers for seemingly
innocuous claims, such as descriptions that say one beer is stronger
than another, said association director Paul Gatza.

"We're seeing the TTB starting to poke around at breweries' Web sites
and issuing letters," he said. Gatza said a U.S. Supreme Court ruling
in the 1980s protected truthful speech on beer labels.

Dillmann has placed a rush order on unmarked bottle caps so he can
keep bottling while he awaits word from the federal agency on his
appeal. He has enlisted the help of U.S. Rep. Wally Herger,
R-Marysville (Yuba County), who has asked the agency to explain why
it rejected Dillmann's bottle cap labels.

The decision banning the caps came just after Dillmann had placed an
order for 400,000 of them, at a cost of about $10,000.

Still, the native of Milwaukee said he wonders how some other brewers
have gotten away with the names for their products, such as Hemp Ale
or Dead Guy Ale. And he can't understand how his label has run afoul
of federal alcohol regulators who must surely be aware of one of the
most famous advertising slogans in American marketing: "This Bud's for you."