You Can Legally Call Literally Anything a Craft Beer

Ask a craft beer fan what defines a beer as "craft," and you'll likely get an earful about ingredients, process, small-batch brewing, and attention to detail. But bad news for beer nerds: A judge in California says your treatise on craft beer is meaningless, because, legally, every beer is a craft beer. Cheers!

A California court has thrown out a class action suit in which a San Diego man, Evan Parent, sued MillerCoors for allegedly deceptive labeling of Blue Moon, which the company calls "Artfully Crafted." He was disappointed when he learned in 2012 that Blue Moon was not a "craft" beer by his standards or those of the Brewers Association, an independent brewery trade group of some 2,000 breweries. The suit says that MillerCoors "goes to great lengths to disassociate Blue Moon beer from the MillerCoors name. MillerCoors does not appear anywhere on the Blue Moon bottle." It also claims Blue Moon is sold at a premium price based on the craft beer perception, and is stocked alongside other "craft" beers in store.

The judge issued a tentative ruling that there is nothing preventing MillerCoors from labeling Blue Moon with Blue Moon Brewing Co. instead of the more corporate sounding MillerCoors, nor is there anything preventing MillerCoors from calling Blue Moon "artfully crafted."

According to Courthouse News, MillerCoors argued that "no reasonable consumer" could have been misled by the "craft beer" representation since there's no legal definition of craft beer. The judge agreed, and a lawyer speaking with Fox 5 News New York said that any beer could label itself craft as long as the beer is consistent with a dictionary definition of "craft." The Brewers Association, on the other hand, defines a craft brewer as a brewery that produces fewer than 6 million barrels of beer annually, is less than a quarter owned by a non-craft brewer, and uses at least 50 percent "traditional or innovative brewing ingredients." MillerCoors pumps out 70 million barrels of Blue Moon a year.

Parent, a self-described beer aficionado and home brewer, was under the impression that Blue Moon was brewed in a small brewery inside Coors Field in Denver. In fact, it's brewed by MillerCoors, which is 57 percent owned by SABMiller, one of the world's largest brewing companies, which is moving ever-closer to a takeover from Anheuser-Busch InBev in a deal that would be worth about $104 billion. The new superbrewer would produce nearly a third of the world's beer, including beers such as Budweiser, Corona, Miller Lite, Stella Artois, Peroni, Goose Island and, yes, Blue Moon.

Unlike most people, who would maybe just drink a different beer, Parent sued MillerCoors for the alleged deception.

"It matters to me because I'm a craft brew fan… I take care in where I spend my money," Parent told NBC 7 San Diego. Parent has 30 days to rephrase his claim to the court.

Meanwhile, Parent may be unsettled to learn that big brewers are buying up "craft" breweries en masse, with Seattle's Elysian being bought by AB InBev, Lagunitas getting a 50 percent stake investment from Heineken, Dogfish Head bringing onboard minority private equity partners, and Firestone Walker receiving an investment from Duvel. Craft beer companies are selling at a pretty good clip.

We'll have to wait and see if the increasing bundling of "craft" brands with massive brewers will lead to more lawsuits. In the meantime, enjoy your craft Coors Lights, Blue Moons, Michelob ULTRAs, and Steel Reserves.