Ale Industries, a small craft brewery from California today announced plans to rebrand its flagship brew – the cannabis-themed wheat beer, Orange Kush.
The bottled version of the brew was already renamed to ‘Orange Shush’ in 2010 after the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) rejected the original label submission saying that the word ‘kush,’ a strain of cannabis indica, violated federal regulations prohibiting drug references on beer labels. Moving forward, the company will call the beer ‘Golden State of Mind.’
Ale Industries produced about 425 barrels of beer in 2011, according to Brewers Association records.
Below is the full company press release.
CONCORD, CA – Our flagship beer “Orange Kush” is being moved in a different direction. As our little brewery grows, so does our reach. With our beer now available from Oregon down to San Diego and over to Arizona, having the word “Kush” censored on our label, just isn’t doing it for us anymore. Like the game of telephone, with more and more distance between us and our customers, the story behind the beer loses its meaning.
Beginning this December you will start seeing a new label out on the market, we are now calling “Orange Kush” – Golden State of Mind. We are very excited to show off our Golden State of California with this new label, and have begun to use, as much as possible, California grown ingredients.
In order to be fair to all the beauty of our great state, we will be changing our label with the seasons, and will be commissioning local artists for the artwork. Not only will this keep the label fresh, and support California artists, but it will also work as a way of indicating the freshness of the beer. We have always worked hard to keep nothing but fresh beer on our retailers shelves, now you will be able to see how well we do!