Wasatch Brewery, the very first brewery in Utah and one of the first craft brewers in all of the U.S., ran into trouble when one of their beers was declared unlawful in the state of North Carolina. In an attempt to roll out distribution in North Carolina to make it the 21st state where the product would be distributed, the brewery wanted to register its Polygamy Porter with the North Carolina’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission(ABCC). However, the authority rejected the name as well as the label.
“Polygamy is illegal. Therefore these products will not be approved,” said the ABCC.
The brewery was shocked when it received the rejection letter. “It caught us quite by surprise, we were not expecting it especially because we’ve been making this beer now for 18 years,” Jon Lee, Wasatch Brewery’s Co-Chief Operating Officer and brewmaster told Fox 13. “Of any places that you’d think we’d have trouble with, it would be here in our home state, but no it just sails right on through.”
Wasatch claims that Polygamy Porter is aimed at poking fun of the history of plural marriages in Utah by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This practice was stopped already in the 1890s and is only practiced by few people in the state.
Given that they already sell other beers in the North Carolina, Wasatch plans to appeal the ruling next month.
