Guns N’ Roses Is Suing A Brewery For Making Guns N’ Rosé Craft Ale Without Their Approval
Just in time for summer is the only craft ale that matters and the last one that should ever be made (can’t we just survive on Hamms and PBR tallboys and call the craft beer thing done already?). A brewery has been selling unauthorized Guns N’ Rosé ale and Axl Rose, Slash and the rest of Guns N’ Roses are not happy about it. The band is pissed, but this is a good thing, because finally rosé has that edge its soft reputation so desperately needed and GNR has the opportunity to soften their tarnished image as well. This could be a very symbiotic whale and barnacle situation, but GNR won’t let it be great and has filed a lawsuit against the brewery. I’m calling it now: Guns N’ Rosé is the BYOB of summer but you better get your hands on it fast before GNR has it pulled from shelves and the band dog piles on top of it (with Axl on the top so you can’t get a slippery grip on any cans).
Canarchy (I see what you did there, clever bearded hipsters) Craft Brewing Collective’s Oskar Blues Brewery has been promoting and selling Guns N’ Rosé craft ale since 2018 and it comes with a full line of merchandise to match, which GNR claims is too similar to their logo. The Colorado (of course) brewery started the process to register their logo last August ahead of promoting the brew, but when the band’s lawyers found out, Oskar Blues abandoned their application and just decided to keep selling it anyway, saying that they will keep selling it until March 2020.
CNN says that the band is very upset because rosé is more of a sorority sister-type drink and therefore might harm their lead singer’s painstakingly crafted image of being a 100% hard male. No, they didn’t say that, but the complaint did say that GNR “suffered and continues to suffer and/or is likely to suffer damage to their trademarks, trade name, business reputation, and goodwill.” Translation: we want their cut of the profits and are pissed they we didn’t think of canning some Guns N’ Rosé craft ale ourselves.
Although I get the dry heaves thinking of what a canned rosé named after Guns N’ Roses could possibly taste like, the brewer describes the taste as “sticky prickly pear and floral hibiscus with a subtle hop profile.” I don’t think Axl and the rest of the band have a very strong case against the brewer for copyright infringement with this recipe. If it was touted as “sticky 3 day old dick sweat and noxious never washed post-gig spandex bicycle shorts with a subtle cigarette butt profile” then GNR would have a much stronger case.
Pic: Oskar Blues