Maine Law Censors Alcohol Content of Beer

The Maine Liquor and Lottery
Commission recently surprised bars, restaurants, and brew pubs in
the state with an old piece of regulation that prohibits the common
practice of listing the alcohol by volume of beer.

The Portland Press Herald
reports that David Carlson of Three Tides & Marshall Wharf
Brewing Co. was talking to the state liquor inspector when he was
confronted with “the little known rule” which the commission
“resurfaced a few weeks ago.” He was told to black out alcohol
content from his menu. The regulation affects any form of
advertising this information, such as signboards.

The provision comes from a broadly-worded advertising
restrictions implemented in 1937. The legislative document
states:

No licensee shall issue, publish, post… any advertisement of a
malt liquor including a label which shall refer in any manner to
the alcohol strength of the malt liquor manufacturer, sold or
distributed by such licensee or used in any advertisement or label
such words as “full strength,” “extra strength,” “high test,” “high
proof,” “pre-war strength,” or similar words or phrases which would
indicate or suggest alcoholic content, or use in any advertisement
or label any numeral unless adequately explained in type of the
same size, prominence, and color.

The Morning Sentinel
explains the justification behind this. “The potency of those
products stirred fear in regulators, who saw their strength as
encouraging underage drinking and overserving, leading to more
restrictive laws that forbade sales pitches of a beer or malt
beverage on the basis of its alcohol content.”

While such a regulation may have made sense nearly 80 years ago,
beer sellers are puzzled by the reintroduction of this information
blackout.

Carlson believe that it endangers patrons. “No one is trying to
promote their beer based on how strong it is — it’s not how any of
us operate. We list it as a form of responsibility to the consumer.
It has nothing to do with how to promote heavy drinking; it’s about
keeping people safe and responsible,” he told
Maine Today.

State Representative Louie Luchini (D-Ellsworth) has responded
by introducing emergency
legislation to repeal the provision.