Last Call: Flying Dog Incentivized by Tax Breaks; A-B Challenges Queen of Beer

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Frederick Tax Breaks Could Woo Flying Dog

Officials in Frederick, Md. approved a piece of legislation last week that would qualify businesses that open secondary locations to receive significant tax credits over 10 years on those additional properties, reports the Frederick News Post. Under the legislation, a company that invests at least $15 million and creates 100 new jobs in the city would be eligible for the highest bracket, tantamount to a 100 percent property tax credit.

This is big news for Flying Dog, a longtime staple in the city now looking for a place in which to invest $50 million to construct a new brewery that could create 150 new jobs. Flying Dog CEO Jim Caruso told the Post he supported the legislation, but that such incentives wouldn’t be the company’s only consideration in location scouting (though he added it certainly wouldn’t hurt). Richard Griffin, the city’s economic development director, for one, is hoping the company reinvests in the town it has long called home.

“We would absolutely love to work with them and to see them in the city of Frederick,” he told the website.

A-B Squabbles with California’s Queen of Beer

Anheuser-Busch (A-B), producer of self-proclaimed “King of Beers” Budweiser, has taken none too kindly to a California craft brewery seeking to designate itself the “Queen of Beer.” According to the St. Louis Dispatch, the world’s largest beer company filed a notice of opposition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Wednesday in response to She Beverage Co.’s attempt to trademark the similarly royal, but distinctly feminine, title.

“The Queen of Beer mark is virtually identical to (A-B’s) King of Beers mark with the exception of replacing the word ‘king’ with the connotatively similar word ‘queen,’” A-B wrote in its opposition, per the Dispatch.

Rose Lupe, co-owner of She Beverage, a small craft brewery that markets specifically to women, fired back, arguing A-B hadn’t trademarked the “Queen” moniker. “There is no ‘Queen of Beer,’ and we’re a female-owned company,” she told the site. “I didn’t anticipate Budweiser getting their panties in a bunch.”

Craft Brewing Study Backed by $8,000 Grant

A study intended to identify agricultural and technological opportunities to grow the craft beer industry in New York’s Southern Tier has been awarded a federal grant worth $8,000, reports Press Connects. The study, awarded to the Southern Tier East Regional Planning Development Board by the U.S. Economic Development Administration, “would link new craft beverage companies and agricultural producers within the eight-county region, in order to maximize growth of the industry,” per the website. U.S. Rep. Richard Hanna (R-NY) announced the grant. “Craft brewing has enormous potential and with the right investments and policies, upstate New York can out-compete anywhere,” he said. “There is real economic opportunity here for the Southern Tier.”

Colorado Brewery Sells First Beer Made with Hydroponic Hops

City Star Brewing of Colorado is set to release Hydro-Pony Express HYPA, perhaps the first commercially available beer made with hydroponically grown hops, according to Westword. Though hydroponic plants are typically associated with Colorado’s other choice intoxicant, the brewery tapped Hydro Hop Farms for its supply of greenhouse-grown Centennial and Columbus hop cones for the beer.

“They are bright green, sticky, and they smell great,” City Star co-owner John way told the website. “They don’t have any sunburn on the leaves that you get from the outdoor stuff. They are the perfect hops.”

There is some statewide trend possibility here, too. Now two years old, Hydro Hop Farms is investing five varieties from 2,000 plants inside its 5,000 sq. ft. greenhouse, the article adds.