In Texas, Brooklyn Lager No Longer “Malt Liquor”
You may have noticed it printed along the edge of the label while turning a bottle of Brooklyn Lager around in your hand: “In Texas, Malt Liquor.” Strange but true: Texas law “stated that any beer over 5.0 percent ABV was to be considered ‘Ale’ or ‘Malt Liquor,'” the Brewery’s operations manager (and our friend) Karl Knoop explains. “Even the word ‘beer’ was not permitted to be on the label! Since Brooklyn Lager is clearly not an ‘Ale’ by definition, we needed to state that, in Texas, the beer was considered a ‘Malt Liquor.'”
But these dark days are over. “The laws in Texas have changed,” Knoop tells us. The Brewery posted the new labels, which make no mention of Texas, to its Facebook page last week.
Florida however still requires beers sold in the state to bear its name, which is why you can find a small FL printed between the grooves on a Brooklyn Lager bottle cap.
Follow Henry Stewart on Twitter @henrycstewart
