Magic Ass Hat runs amok as Goose Island drinkers yawn.

For those still somehow naively believing that sources and ownership stakes don't matter as long as the beer stokes his or her self-serving narcissism, or that "big beer" is NOT malign by the necessity of its very nature, please check out the West Sixth and Magic Hat sixes and nines lawsuit imbroglio and learn something from it.

‘You’d think we could settle this over a beer’: Multinational sues West Sixth microbrewery over trademark, by Michael Tierney (Insider Louisville)

We have serious David versus Goliath on our hands.

Magic Hat IP and Independent Brewers Corp. have filed a federal lawsuit against West Sixth Brewing Co., based in Lexington.

Better yet, just stick a Magic Hat #9 logo on that fellow's posterior (above), and it's my reaction in a nutshell.

This story's all over the Internetz, and deservedly so. About all I can add is that we probably need to get used to it: A no-longer-craft corporate poseur almost surely prompted by an AB-InBev wholesaler hiding on the grassy knoll gleefully piddles on a genuine local/regional craft producer (West Sixth), confident in the knowledge that the target audience for Magic Hat is utterly oblivious to the concerns of craft beer consciousness as we know them.

I was asked yesterday whether being non-craft means Magic Hat must lose legal protection s enjoyed by all Americans. Of course not. What they inevitably lose of their own accord in the absence of ethical craft consciousness is an equitable sense of grace -- but that's what all corporate chains lack.

Now it's our brave new world, and Magic Ass Hat is just an unwelcome part of it.

And my solution?

That's easy: Polemics. Read and repeat. And drink some West Sixth to show some solidarity against the vandals.

Laugh riot: Louisville Bats and "craft beer."

In an essay about the correct use of quotation marks:

Quotation marks can also be used to highlight a word or phrase that's being discussed. Sometimes this is just something like a new term, but it can also show that the reader is being facetious or doesn't really believe what he's quoting. In that case it's called a "scare quote," and the quotation marks indicate disbelief or even snarkiness.

Judging from the placement of quotation marks, it looks as though the Bats (Centerplate?) don't really believe what the PR department and AB-InBev are churning out. Perhaps it is a veiled cry for help, or the knowing wink of a craft-loving intern.

Thanks to Ben for pointing me to this.

Sun King's Clay Robinson: "We want full transparency so consumers know when they’re getting a true craft beer."

Sun King Brewing's co-founder, Clay Robinson, speaks to "craft versus crafty" in an excellent essay at the IndyStar. It reads to me like a state of the union address from the Brewers of Indiana Guild's next president; the annual meeting is in April, and I have to think Clay gets the nod if that's what he wants.

Competition makes Indy's beer better on St. Patrick's Day, by Clay Robinson (at IndyStar)

When I first got into making beer for a living, my reasons were simple: I wanted a job that would accept me as I am (I didn’t want to cut my hair or shave), and I wanted to end each day drinking good beer that I helped create. I didn’t plan to become a brewery owner, and I certainly never thought we would one day be on the radar of companies like Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors.

My partners and I opened Sun King Brewery in 2009. Over the past several years our business has grown beyond our biggest hopes. Meanwhile, the craft brewing industry got big enough that the giant beer conglomerates couldn’t ignore us. In fact, these days, they’re spending a lot of money trying to beat us.

No craft beer for Rufus Wainwright, although the mockrobrews flowed like water.

I'll tread lightly, but it's worth noting that the Rufus Wainwright show tonight at the Iroquois Amphitheater (a stellar venue, by the way) featured precisely zero beers from American-owned companies.

The thrill-packed beer lineup included Miller High Life, Coors Light, Leinenkugel Summer Shandy, Blue Moon & Killian's Red. In fairness, River City Distributing (NABC's Louisville wholesaler) has managed to insert local craft beers in other, similar settings, and it is my understanding that reams of Coors sponsorship money are responsible for the placements in question.

I'll also concede that prices last night (circa $6 for what appeared to be a 16-oz cup) were more reasonable than the Louisville Palace's gouging for BBC APA ($10) during the recent Hitchcock flick I attended.

Here's the part that matters to me: When I asked about the beer selection, I was told that "craft" beer was readily available in the form of Blue Moon and Summer Shandy. To the staff's credit, when I asked it there were any American-owned breweries present from which to choose, the response was clear and unambiguous: "No."

I appreciate that sort of candor. However, the same answer applies to the question, "Are there any genuine craft beers here?"

No.

Because multinational teats like Leinie, Blue Moon and Killian's are not craft, no matter how many times the words are repeated, and irrespective of the money spent to perpetuate the lie.

The concert? It was wonderful, and I enjoyed it in the company of my wife and two bottles of water -- real water, that is; not Coors Light.

Semantics, Dialectics and Devilry ... at LouisvilleBeer.com

My latest column has been published at LouisvilleBeer.com, so when you get a break between basketball games, go there and read it, okay?

Semantics, Dialectics and Devilry

Posted by Roger Baylor in Baylor on Beer | 0 comments

You know it’s going to be a rough day when there hasn’t even been enough time to make coffee, and you’ve already seen a note like this one at Beerpulse:

Anheuser-Busch’s answer to Leinie’s Summer Shandy has arrived in some markets. Meet Shock Top Lemon Shandy.

Alexander Keith's does not matter at all.

As if there were any doubt, the low price point should give away the game: Alexander Keith's is not a traditional, heroic, independent brewer in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, but not unlike the sadly decapitated Goose Island, is owned outright by the gargantuan multinational, AB Inbev, which explains why this cute display is in the deli section of New Albany's State Street Kroger in the first place.

It's all an exercise in flatulent marketing, and likely to disappear unless it succeeds in knocking worthier American-made ales off the shelf -- that's why it's here, folks -- but in many other respects, Keith's makes little sense. Numerous American craft beers are as good or better, and it likely cannibalizes other AB Inbev imports (can anyone think of a reason for Bass being here?), but hey, who am I to fathom the motives of the non-beer-loving dealers?

After all, I'm just a beer lover who detests the multinationals with every fiber of my being ... but luckily, that's enough.