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FDA shoots at Four Loko, hits Cohasset craft brewer instead
By Ron Newman on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 1:01am
A tiny Cohasset craft brewer received a letter from the FDA essentially shutting down her business. She had been producing Moonshot caffeinated beer since 2004, reports the Quincy Patriot Ledger.
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Comments
And what about all those
And what about all those coffee stouts?
Rum & Cokes? (I saw these in a can sold in Italy - I don't know if they were available in the States.)
Irish coffee?
Can I still put Sambucca in my espresso?
Mmm, coffee stouts.
Time to pick up homebrewing, if you haven't done so already!
If I'm not mistaken, isn't the plight of Moonshot chronicled in the documentary Beer Wars? And judging by the reviews on BeerAdvocate, the FDA is hardly to blame for its demise...
If I recall...
The Moonshot founder was initially on board with Jim Koch when he started brewing Sam Adams. Beer Wars made it extremely clear who was the brewer and who was the marketer in that relationship. That said, it's a shame to see all that legwork go to waste, even if it was for a pretty wretched product.
False equivalency
From the media reports, Four Loko has alcohol content around 12% (by volume), which is similar to that of wine, and is sold in 24-oz containers (similar volume to a bottle of wine). Cocktails, such as a rum and coke, contain ABV similar to (or a little bit higher than) wine.
But most people don't toss back a whole bottle of wine by themselves in the time you can knock back a Four Loko. Nor do people usually toss back 24-oz of rum and coke or Irish coffee in a single drink. Four Loko is really in a class by itself.
Banning a few microbrews appear to be the unintended consequence of this new ABCC rule, because a shot of espresso, say, in the brewing process, can add body and depth to a porter or a stout, and the caffeine content might be very low in the final product. I hope the ABCC can create a sensible rule instead.
Nonsense
You can "knock back" 24 oz of whatever you want in the same amount of time that you "knock back" 24 oz of whatever else you want. Volume is volume and it's all going to the same place...your stomach...through the same tube...your esophagus. It's not like wine or rum and coke or irish coffee is any harder of a liquid to swallow like molasses.
Now, most wine drinkers don't swig a whole bottle as if it were a single serving. But that's because they're not dumbasses and they can appreciate how much quantity and ABV that they're drinking!
It's not Four Loko that was in its own class...it's its de facto audience...and it's not a very high brow class to be in.
Also, adding espresso to a brew isn't hit by this rule. Adding the *chemical* caffeine (you can *buy* caffeine in a glass vial as a food additive if you want) to an otherwise normal brew is. Moonshot was a caffeine-fortified beer (there were a few other beers like this by even the major manufacturers ("B to the E" from Budweiser, anyone?), but they had poor sales and an initial "caffeine + alcohol = evil incarnate!!" scare in the media about 2 years ago and dumped those lines.
Cost Factor
I will admit to putting away a full bottle of that wonderful brew made in Quebec by Unibroue last Thanksgiving Eve. It has about 9% alcohol in a large bottle. It took a 30 mile ride the next morning to incinerate the hangover.
I don't do this regularly - but, even if I did IT WOULD BE EXPENSIVE. This stuff is $8 a bottle.
A major factor in these nasty potions being used for binge drinking is their very cheapness - most wine, craft brewed beers, etc. are all comparatively expensive, and they can be because most people don't drink them for the alcohol alone - people drink them because they taste good and are willing to pay a premium for that.
I think the only real way to regulate drinks like 4loco is to put in a price floor scheme based on alcohol content by volume. If 4Loco was $6 a can, would anybody buy it? Probably not. Cheap booze, fortified wines, and 4Loco are binge fuel because they are cheap. Price floors wouldn't hurt microbrews, but they would dent sales of less worthy high alcohol drinks.
The FDA is only targeting
The FDA is only targeting drinks with pure caffeine as an added ingredient. Founders Breakfast Stout is safe. Moonshot is basically a watery light lager spiked with pure caffeine. Very few people will miss this stuff.
Yes! Drinks with naturally
Yes! Drinks with naturally occurring caffeine are safe from this new law.
Found this out at a beer tasting last night, where among the samples was Iqhilika Coffee Mead, a remarkable dessert beverage - not beer, not wine, but something in between.