Messages

16

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Slowing Fermentation advice

« on: December 11, 2012, 02:22:37 PM »

Also piling on here, but after counting off 6 points for the lactose you're at 73% apparent attenuation.  That sounds pretty good for S-04.

17

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: These guys need to clean up their act

« on: November 14, 2012, 01:42:36 PM »

. . .the movie, the song, the coffee houses, the software co, etc. are in totally different lines of business that have, with the possible exception of the movie, nothing to do with beer.

The software, too.  It's similar to BeerSmith.

18

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: These guys need to clean up their act

« on: November 13, 2012, 09:00:05 AM »

Agreed.  Even so, the value of the Trademark should bear some weight in the argument - here they took a name that was already widely used by others for a use relating to beer and want to close the door behind them for future use by others where little to no confusion in the marketplace is occurring.  Sometimes the law has to catch up to the facts in order to properly apply.

However, if their business were to grow then confusion would become a much bigger issue.  And they've got an online store, so no doubt they do intent to grow.  It's better to handle any potential problems earlier rather than later.  I'm coming around to thinking that the HBS is right to ask the brewery to change their name.

I've still got a bad taste in my mouth over the way they've apparently charged into the situation guns a-blazing.  They were right to seek legal advice before starting the conversation, but I think it would have been more classy to start by personally contacting the brewery's owners with a message that had been vetted by their lawyer rather than sent by him.  When you choose to have the conversation start with an attorney's letterhead, you inevitably come across looking like a bully.  Perhaps it worked out that way because of the lawyer's advice, though.

19

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: These guys need to clean up their act

« on: November 11, 2012, 08:31:07 AM »

Strange Brew trademark (that is alive) was registered in 2007 for beer and beer supply retail.
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4002:ul55e4.2.2

The federal trademark is registered for the homebrew shop. The strange brewing brewery was established in 2010 and by the trademark has no chance to win this dispute.

From the homebrew shop perspective. They have to defend their trademark otherwise they would lose the trademark. It is that cut and dry. I do not think that homebrew shop owner is happy to pay the legal fees ether.

There's even a piece of homebrewing software called Strange Brew that's been around since well before they registered that trademark.

Is there a provision similar to prior art in patent law? Would they also lose their trademark (or at least their claim to rights over disparate business types across a wide geographic area) if it comes out in court that somebody else was there first?

20

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: These guys need to clean up their act

« on: November 09, 2012, 01:33:58 PM »

Tinfoil hat alert! One of the big brewers is behind this:

I'm not so convinced.  Reading the attorney's letter, it sounds more like there was some confusion, particularly with one of their suppliers, that inconvenienced or irritated the owners, and they're (over)reacting to that situation.

Sad that they didn't think to try handling it in a more grown-up manner, first. 

21

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Need to overcome irrational fear of kit beer

« on: November 08, 2012, 12:42:14 PM »

I don't feel like there's much difference between buying a kit and following a recipe, as long as the ingredients are the same.

Last time I went to Northern Brewer's brick and mortar store I got stuff to make one of their kit beers and one beer from a recent issue of Zymurgy.  They only have pre-assembled versions of their extract kits sitting in boxes on the shelves, for grain you have to measure out and crush it yourself. So only real difference between the recipe and the NB "kit" was where the ingredients list came from:  One was written on a sheet of paper I brought from home, and the other I found in a 3-ring binder in the grain room. 

22

Commercial Beer Reviews / Re: Budweiser Project 12

« on: November 06, 2012, 12:24:43 PM »

Favorite quote from that AB-InBev article:

In a telephone interview from Munich, Willy Buholzer, AB InBev’s director of global hops procurement, cheerfully insists that the company still brews the traditional way with Hallertauer Mittelfrüh. He says the reason that AB InBev stopped buying it was that it has a surplus. “We just have too much right now,” Buholzer says. “We need a break for a couple of years.”