Aussie brewer trademarks the colour of beer

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This was published 6 years ago

Aussie brewer trademarks the colour of beer

By Cara Waters

Melbourne craft brewer East 9th Brewing has filed an application to trademark the colour of beer.

The brewery is following in the footsteps of Cadbury, which attempted to trademark the colour purple and BP which attempted to trademark the shade of green it uses.

"We hope this will revolutionise the way we think about beer," says co-founder Benjamin Cairns. "We have lodged all the paperwork and trademarked the actual Pantone colour".

Cairns says the application, which was filed about a month ago, is an "ironic wink" at the stupidity of ownership by corporations.

East 9th Brewing's latest brew is Doss Blockos The Colour of Beer and Cairns claims it is the first beer that is actually the colour of beer, thanks to the trademark application.

Cairns says the beer is "generous on the tropical notes" without being too heavy on bitterness.

Identifying the colour of beer

The brewery worked with Australian street art company Ironlak to identify the colour of beer. 

The Colour of Beer can imitates Ironlak's iconic spray can design and Ironlak has simultaneously relased a spray paint with the same name and matched as closely as possible to the colour of East 9th Brewing's beer.

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"The Ironlak spray paint can is like the Bic pen for street artists," Cairns says. "So we worked with them to come up with a colour which best represented our beer." 

East 9th Brewing founders Josh Lefers, Stephen Wools and Benjamin Cairns.

East 9th Brewing founders Josh Lefers, Stephen Wools and Benjamin Cairns.

Cairns, who previously worked in the brewing and alcohol industry, started East 9th Brewing with marketers Josh Lefers and Stephen Wools eight years ago. 

"We are one of the elder statesmen in the independent brewers world," says Cairns. 

East 9th Brewing began with the Doss Blockos beer brand and its other brands include Lick Pier, Fog City, Future Memoirs of A Root Beer and last year launched a hemp beer, Doss Blockos Hempire Hemp Beer.

The brewery turns over under $10 million a year and uses different manufacturers to create its beers.

It uses Craft Revolution for the sales and distribution of its beers, which are sold nationally with around 5000 distribution points around Australia including Metcash, Woolworths, Coles and Dan Murphy's .

Marketing stunt?

East 9th Brewing is coy on whether its trademark application is just a marketing stunt.

"Well who knows what this might mean for the beer industry," Wools says. "Maybe Heineken, VB or XXX Gold will have to tweak the colour of their liquid to avoid any trademark infringements. They might own the taps pouring the beer but we own the colour of beer." 

Chris McNamara, executive officer of the Independent Brewers Association, says he hopes East 9th Brewing's trademark application is not serious.

"It would certainly cut down on what we would see as the sharing nature of our industry," he says.

"Knowing what I do about East 9th Brewing they seem more a brand that might want to take the piss out of the larger guys. It does have implications for the rest of the industry if it was to get through."  

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