Hey TTB - I'm beer.
Well this might not be a topic for dispute, but Stone Brewing‘s latest triangular collaboration has quite a label. The beer – El Camino (Un) Real Black Ale.
The new beer is a collaboration between Stone Brewing, 21st Amendment and Firestone Walker, three of California’s finest brewers. From a quick look at the ingredients, this new collaboration seems to be a spiced fruit basket of ale.
BevLog, one of our favorites beer law websites, ran a story about the new beer after seeing the label submission run across the TTB. As you probably know, the TTB is responsible for approving the labels of beers sold in the US. The mission is to ensure transparency and safety for the beer consumer.
Check out the label above – and be floored by the contents of this new ale. Ingredients such as chia seed, peppercorns, fennel seed and mission figs are seldom seen on your beer label. In fact, they probably remind you more of your easter lamb than your afternoon ale.
The BevLog did some brief research on the contents: (from their site)
This beer has a rather uncommon and unlikely combination of ingredients. The peppercorns are no great surprise, but the alcohol beverages with chia seeds seem to be few and far between. Wiki reports that chia is an Aztec word for oily, and these seeds contain large amounts of oil, omega-3 fatty acids, and antioxidants. (Un)Real El Camino Black Ale is also brewed with fennel seed and mission figs. It is a collaboration among several brewers and is bottled by Stone Brewing Co. in Escondido, California.
It does not appear that this beer was held up in submission to the TTB. But it is likely that it demanded a bit of research over there. Its nice to see brewers continuing to push the envelope with new and exciting formulas.