Careful, that bottle cap could confuse you
07.05.2008 03:01
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- Source: JS Online
Vaune Dillmann grew up in South Milwaukee but long ago went off in search of weed. Make that Weed, as in the city in northern California. In 2004, Dillmann opened the Mt. Shasta Brewing Co. and started producing Weed ales and lagers from mountain spring water. He topped each beer bottle with a cap that reads: "Try legal Weed." "It's a play on words," he said, and a bit of innocent fun. Same with the brewery T-shirt that says: "100% pure Weed." The feds, not known for liking fun, recently ordered him to stop using the caps. "We interpret it as a drug reference," Art Resnick told me. He's the spokesman for the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau in Washington. "It's misleading as to the possibility of what's in the beverage and possible effects of the beverage." In that case, there would be a lot of confused people walking around Dillmann's town, which has a population of 3,000 and a fitting altitude of 3,440 feet. "We have a Weed college here. We have a Weed high. We have a Weed elementary. We have a Weed police. We have a Weed city council, a Weed cemetery. Everything is Weed here," Dillmann said. He recalls the time he and his wife, Barbara, went along on a school field trip to San Francisco by bus. "On the side it said Weed High. There were so many tourists wanting to take their pictures next to that name on the side of the bus, they wouldn't let us out. What a trip, huh?" Weed city administrator Earl Wilson has heard all the jokes. For a while there was an exit sign along Interstate 5 that gave travelers a choice that seemed profound: Weed to the right, college to the left. Photo seekers became a traffic hazard, and folks tried to steal the sign. "People gotta have fun in life," Wilson said. Now 61, Dillmann moved out to California when he was 20. His family ran a beer and liquor warehouse in Milwaukee. His great-great-grandfather, Peter Victor Deuster, started the newspaper in 1882 that became The Milwaukee Journal, which Dillmann delivered as a kid. It's ironic that he's in trouble over drugs when he has never tried marijuana or any other illegal substance, he swears. And he's not encouraging anyone else to inhale. He's a law-abiding civic booster who helped write his city's mission statement to make sure people are high on Weed. But you never know what kind of tourists you're going to get when the freeway signs say, "Weed, next three exits." The story of Dillmann's fight with the bottle cap narcs has spread worldwide. He said he's received a thousand e-mails, all supporting him. He's been using the "Try legal Weed" caps for four years now on his various brews, and no one is confused that this would have them literally living the high life. "It says try legal Weed, not illegal weed," Dillmann said. "It's with a capital W. It's the man's surname." He means Abner Weed, namesake of this city in Mount Shasta's shadow, founder of the first lumber mill and later a senator of the state that would give us the Doobie Brothers. Dillmann has appealed the alcohol bureau's order, arguing among other things that maybe Budweiser had drugs on its mind, too, when it told us, "This Bud's for you." Until this all gets hashed out, Weed beer will come with plain bottle caps. When and if Dillmann gets the all-clear signal, 400,000 "Try legal Weed" caps sit waiting in an Oakland warehouse. "One guy said I'll buy 3,000. Box them up and send them," he said. In terms of free advertising, this government crackdown has been the best thing ever to happen to Dillmann and his beer. Unfortunately, you can't buy Weed beer in Wisconsin, not even this playfully named brew that could stir up even more refrigerator madness: Shastafarian Porter. Call Jim Stingl at (414) 224-2017 or e-mail at jstingl@journalsentinel.com
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