UNOFFICIAL OREGON BREWERS FESTIVAL BEER HAT

As a serious blogger posting on serious topics, like beer, it’s important to open the window.

You know, find common ground.

Go the Oregon Brewers Festival for the beer and join the crowd.

Or wear an Oregon Brewers Festival beer hat and find some education with the beer and crowds.

Let the learning begin.

First some history: I received my hat as a birthday gift from my son’s girlfriend ten years ago. I knew she was special right away.

Now she’s my daughter in law and I’m the happiest daddy ever since she joined the G team.

I wear this hat once a year, hence Oregon Brewers Festival Beer Hat. It’s not official, except when I put it on.

The only stipulation is wearing it ONLY to the Brewfest on Waterfront park.

That’s not too weird, right, not like I’m an attention hog?

In the top image I’m hanging with the guys from BDSM Brewing Company with owner/brewmaster Billy Bragg on the left.

Without the hat the picture doesn’t happen. It’s a big downtown crowd with enough distractions for everyone. And beer.

With the hat I stopped and we got into beer brewing regulations. And it was awesome.

These guys could teach a class.

As the conversation progressed I asked if I could take notes. That’s when they broke out the smart phones.

Who outside of beer brewers and marketers, have heard of the most powerful man in beer labeling?

His name is Kent ‘Battle’ Martin. The guys from BDSM Brewing knew his name by heart.

He’s retired now, but leaves a big legacy.

“He’s the king of beer. His will is law,” said one lawyer who works with him regularly. The lawyer asked to remain anonymous, for fear of crossing the beer specialist. “There’s one dude in the government who gets to control a multibillion-dollar industry with almost no supervision.”

And he goes by the name “Battle.”

Any brewery that wants to market its wares in this country needs to get it through Kent “Battle” Martin, giving the federal official extraordinary power. With only vague regulations outlining what is and isn’t permissible, he approves beer bottles and labels for the Tax and Trade Bureau, or TTB, a section of the Treasury Department.

The TTB? Never heard of it, but the BDSM brew crew had. Now it’s shareable.

These are the labeling rules Battle worked with.

BDSM knows the rules for their beer, this beer: