We just got word that Sixpoint Craft Ales is having some trouble with the Federal Government concerning their Hop Obama Ale. In a Facebook message, owner Shane Welch sent out the following information:
Then, the plot thickens....The Department of Homeland Security gets involved. We recently received an official cease and desist letter from them claiming we must take immediate acts to shut down and exterminate our production, dissemination, and distribution of this brand or the Federal government will enact punitive fines and/or seize control of our brewery.
Don't worry though, the Hop Obama will live on, and be stronger than it ever was. We have a plan.... Kind of like Obi-wan Kenobi when he was struck down by Vader and came back as the guiding voice for Luke Skywalker. There will be a new reincarnation of the beer, along with many others.
Speaking of many others...the largest assembly of Sixpoint beers to date will be at Barcade this Tuesday, Feb 17th - I sent out an invite a few minutes ago, you most definitely don't want to miss this one if you're around...
peace
Shane C. Welch .
DrinkCraftBeer.com will continue to follow this story and get you more information as we find out.
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We just received an update, again via Facebook, from Shane Welch. Instead of summarizing, we'll just put the text of his message up:
Subject: Hop Obama - please stop
Please everyone, no more phone calls or emails about the Feds crashing through our windows with teargas and rifles to shut down the brewery.
Also, I just received a phone call from the Feds in Wash DC about this and other related things, so please stop.
All of this happened months ago - way back in November, and we decided not to tell anyone about it. We quietly destroyed visual remnants of the Hop Obama (the beer was already long gone, but we removed it from our website and got rid of the printed material) and went along with our business.
The funny thing about this whole situation is we actually already stopped making this beer before the Feds even ordered us to stop. Immediately fter the election, before the Feds contacted us, we didn't make a single batch of Hop Obama and the beer was out-of-stock at our distributor.
It was only after the election - late November - that the Feds stepped in an ordered us to stop. We had prior label approval from them, but apparently they didn't want us to do it.
People had been asking me about the Hop Obama recently, and when we will be making it again, so I wanted to set the record straight and tell you- THERE WILL BE NO MORE HOP OBAMA AND THE REASON WHY IS THE FEDS WILL NOT ALLOW IT.
However, as I said, we can reincarnate the beer, but we just can't call it the Hop Obama. The recipe is not the problem, its the use of the name without the government and President's approval for our beer.
How about the Abomination Ale?
Get it? hehehe Obama-Nation ale? :-D
that's it