Beer vs. Booze, with wine as an interested observer. Apparently, it is illegal to have nutritional information on labels of alcoholic beverages, for some reason. Previously, the beer, spirit, and wine industries all agreed this was a good thing. Now, they aren't so sure
Chicago Tribune | Beer, liquor labeling coming to a head:
For more than 30 years beer brewers, vintners and distillers have worked together to fight consumer lobbying groups that wanted to require the labels on alcoholic beverages. But changing consumer tastes, from beer to liquor, have strained the relationship. Since 1999, beer sales have fallen 3.1 percent, while hard liquor sales grew 3 percent in the same period. That costs beermakers hundreds of millions in the more than $50 billion U.S. alcoholic beverage market. Distillers see a competitive advantage and now want to share their stats with drinkers in hopes of continuing their momentum. It may help liquor sales, especially among some dieters, if consumers knew that a 1.5-ounce shot of Jim Beam bourbon has 100 calories and no carbohydrates. Comparatively, a 12-ounce Budweiser contains 146 calories and 11 grams of carbs.
Spirit companies want to change the law
Early last year, Diageo, whose brands include Guinness beer and Tanqueray gin, asked the government to change its rules to permit but not require distillers to place fact labels on their products.Diageo and the consumer groups filed their petition not to food regulators, but to the Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau in the Treasury Department, which is empowered to approve or deny virtually every change to labels on alcohol products.
Beer companies, on the other hand
Pete Marino, a spokesman for Milwaukee-based Miller Brewing Co., said there is a difference between a 12-ounce glass of 5 percent beer and a 1.5-ounce shot of 80-proof liquor."A liquid gallon of beers comes out to 10 beers. A liquid gallon of liquor comes out to 895 drinks. Clearly they are not the same," he said.
Miller said that the information proposed for the labels would be misleading and that consumers had not indicated an interest in seeing the labels altered. The Washington, D.C.-based Beer Institute said consumers "are adequately informed by existing labels."
mmmm, a gallon of beer.....
However, winemakers...are sitting on the fence trying to determine how they should respond to the proposed rules. The board of the Wine Institute, which represents 1,500 California winemakers, is to meet this week to consider the rule.
oh, and the local, delicious beer, Goose Island, is all for new rules
John Hall, owner of Chicago's Goose Island Brewery, said he doesn't have a problem with labeling."We put the alcohol on some beers and we would have no problem with something like that," he said. "Quite frankly I don't know if we would have any problem with putting carbs and calories on our beers.
"An informed consumer is a better consumer," Hall said.
I don't understand the big hubbub, what's a label anyway.
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I don't think it's good to buy beers or any alcoholic beverage. Most especially now that we are in recession. All things must be bought according to our needs not our wants. Most people can't find their way back to their accustomed usual ways of living, it must be due to a drop in income, and this leads them to being struggling consumers. Well, it isn't a great idea to go back to the way things were, spending freely regardless of any temporary money problems that come up. The titanic amount of leveraged credit led to a unstable market and economy. The Federal Reserve reports up jiffy in some activity, but consumer activity has dropped off. Doubtless that many financiers would use short-term loans to get the struggling consumer back to normal. The best to do it we must all cooperate in reviving our economy sturdiness and pray for the best.