Wine

[David A. Daniel]

Oh for heaven's sake. What that list shows is that, as far as the feds are
concerned, whether you call your stuff beer or ale or malt liquor or malt
beverage makes no difference in terms of alcohol. If it is over 0.5% you can
call it one of those several dozen names. If it is under 0.5% you can call
it Near Beer. Period, full stop, ergo, thus, QED and nuff said. The other
issues are truth-in-labeling matters. A "Low carbohydrates" label has a
rule, a "low calorie" label has a rule, a "low fat" label has a rule, a "low
sodium" label has a rule, a "low or reduced alcohol" label has a rule, etc.
DAD



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Victor Steinbok
Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2011 10:02 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Wine



This is a list of names, not definitions. They appear to be
self-referential and would be fairly useless in any legal disputes
(other than 0.5% alcohol threshold). If you peel back to the pages of
the same document that bring up laws and regulations, they simply refer
to the previously mentioned 27 CFR--specifically to Part 7 for Malt
Beverages.

http://www.ttb.gov/beer/bam/lawsandregs.pdf

Also note the table on page 1-7:
http://www.ttb.gov/beer/bam/chapter1.pdf

    Low alcohol: less than 2.5% alcohol by volume

    Reduced alcohol: less than 2.5% alcohol by volume

    Non-alcoholic: less than 0.5% alcohol by volume
    NOTE: The statement "CONTAINS LESS THAN 0.5% ALC BY VOL" must appear
    with "NON-ALCOHOLIC" on the label

    Alcohol free: no alcohol (0.0% alc by vol)
    NOTE: The alcohol content statement "0.0% ALC BY VOL" may not appear
    on the label unless the malt beverage is labeled "ALCOHOL FREE"

Still, going back to Chapter 4, note that if "ale", "barley wine", etc.,
are to be defined according to industry standards, and industry
standards differentiate by the concentration of alcohol, this document
does not preclude the possibility of enforced distinction (i.e., the
progression from alcohol-free to no/low/reduced alcohol, to lager and
ale, then to malt liquor and barley wine). It merely defers the defining
process to someone else, while retaining the fed government right to
enforce it.

Wiki, however, points to state laws and regulations that give different
definitions to these categories in different states. It is not entirely
clear what one is to do if state laws conflict with "industry
standards"--presumably, state law wins on products made in that state,
but state law cannot determine how to label products sold in more than
one state.

Contrast that with the FarLex Thesaurus definition of "malt liquor":

> malt liquor -- a lager of high alcohol content; by law it is
> considered too alcoholic to be sold as lager or beer

Similarly, under "barley wine":

> /Brit/ an exceptionally strong beer

So, if there is a legal definition of lager, ale, malt liquor, barley
wine, stout and porter, it /must/ be federal--labels generally cannot
vary from state to state (which is one all or most legally required
bottle deposit values are listed on labels of bottles sold in
non-deposit states). State laws may apply to in-state brewers and
retailers, but they can't override federal regulations.

     VS-)

On 12/13/2011 6:05 AM, David A. Daniel wrote:
> Here http://www.ttb.gov/beer/bam/chapter4.pdf
> DAD
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of
> Joel S. Berson
> Sent: Monday, December 12, 2011 10:53 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Wine
>
> ---
> At 12/10/2011 05:40 AM, David A. Daniel wrote:
>> Every one of them is
>> simply defined as having at least 0.5% alcohol, except for Near Bear
which
>> must have less than 0.5% alcohol.
> Where can I find this?  It sounds like something Mormons, etc., could
> get a permissible kick from.
>
> Joel

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org