Category Archives: Regulation

Thoughts on the law and policy implications of beer as a business and/or alcohol as a drug

The ‘Jedi Juice’ Saga

Two Lego Star Wars characters — General Grievous and Obi-Wan Kenobi from Episode II — in the foreground either side of a can of Hop Nation's Jedi Juice (which has a cartoon illustration of Princess Leia holding a blaster on it) beside a glass filled with hazy beer blurred in the background
ABAC v. Hop Nation, as perceived by craft beer nerds

Launched at Australia’s biggest beer festival and allegedly the first local commercial hazy IPA, Hop Nation’s ‘Jedi Juice’ had a strong following. In 2019, many of its fans were outraged when, after a complaint, the alcohol advertising regulator ruled it in breach of standards, prompting the brewery to slightly change its branding — though they still often reference the saga. So, for May The Fourth, let’s look back.

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An excise tax fact-check exercise

Screenshot from the end of a video by Blackflag Brewing. It's a simple white text on black background title card, meant to evoke the standard authorisation statement at the end of a political ad. Text reads: "This message has been approved by Blackflag Brewing, and probably every Aussie beer drink. PLEASE VOTE RESPONSIBLY."
Disclaimer-disclaimer: I do not approve of their message

Excise tax might be the hot-button issue in Australian beer at the moment. It’s quickly mentioned whenever troubles with the industry (such as brewery closures) are discussed, and has become an election issue with parties in and out of government making various promises of reform or relief. Sadly, the ‘debate’ is undermined by half-truths and misinformation. I want to push back against that, focusing on a particular widely-shared clip by Queensland’s Blackflag Brewing.

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Special to us, but not special

Screenshot from the cartoon Bluey, episode 'Library' (s02e30), depicting a car's rear-view mirror where Stripe (a blue heeler dog), driving, is having a conversation with his daughter Muffin (a grey and white heeler dog in a tiara), in a car seat behind him
There’s a lesson here, probably several

I’ve worked in the beer industry for nearly two decades. I met a huge proportion of my friends through it. I write this. It is a significant part of my identity. And it’s not an easy time for beer, right now. But it makes me extremely uncomfortable when people — in the business, or the wider subculture — call for direct, targeted support from government. I want to try and explain why, with help from a simple piece of moral philosophy nicely illustrated by, of all things, an episode of Bluey.

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A bad story hides a good point

Stuff.co.nz headline (4 December 2017)
Not news — for several different reasons

Sometimes, being nearly right is actually worse than being completely wrong. A story headlined Higher Alcohol Levels In Craft Beer Catching Drivers Out was published yesterday, and proved to be an instructively terrible example of this. It’s broadly in the ‘single out beer to be the bad guy in a story about booze in general’ genre, but goes an extra step and zeroes in on “craft beer” for some speculative shaming. Frustratingly, they built their pile of wrongness incredibly close to an important point, which they just wound up burying in crap.

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We are drug dealers

Mandatory signage in signature style (Golding's Free Dive, 7 April 2016)
Three simple rules
One of the two real constants in my Philosophy Of Beer is that drinking is drug-taking.1 You can say this without being puerile or Prohibitionist; it is, after all, just the plain and literal truth. A lot of things are drug-taking ― from my morning coffee and daily antihistamines to things like morphine and amphetamines ― and there’s no point pretending otherwise or ignoring the wider context, variable as it is. The “drug” concept is (like everything) fuzzy at the margins, but I’m most interested in the ways it entails the need for some kind of moderation in your personal life (which I’ll return to later) and some kind of regulation in society.2 Needless to say, the details vary wildly with the character of the particular drug, and it’s entirely possible to strike the balances very badly indeed. For now, as a warmup to tackling trickier issues later, let’s address one specific rule ― age3 ― and how compliance with it is tested.

The Police regularly conduct “controlled purchase operations”, where an underage person is recruited to attempt to purchase alcohol from, say, a supermarket or a bar. That person can lie when asked their age, but they don’t carry fake ID. Recently, Dominic Kelly ― proprietor of beer bar Hashigo Zake and its importing arm Beer Without Borders ― criticised the practice, labelling it entrapment, and describing it as ‘seedy’, ‘inherently unfair’ and ‘appalling’. Now, I like Dominic. I count him a friend and consider him one of the country’s unsung beer writers; through his editorials in B.W.B.’s entertaining newsletters and his occasional blog, he’s a strong and valuable voice on its regulatory and business aspects. But here, he’s almost completely wrong.

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