Beer Radar

If you’ve been following the infamous State Police beer raid, you’ve probably already bookmarked the PLCB’s online list of Registered Malt or Brewed Beverage Brands. This is the list that the cops cited when they busted three city bars last week, claiming they were selling brands whose breweries or importers had not paid the annually required $75 registration fee.

There’s one big problem with the list: It’s completely worthless.

As previously reported, the online list is rife with mistakes. Duvel, for example, was listed as “Duvel Beer,” when its label said “Duvel Belgian Golden Ale.” That discrepancy (since corrected) apparently led the police to confiscate bottles of Duvel from the bars and order its wholesale distributor to immediately cease shipments of the beer.But it gets worse: Disclaimers posted on the web sites of both the PLCB and the state of Pennsylvania clearly warn that the contents of the sites should not be used for any legal purposes.

PLCB disclaimer:

“With respect to documents available from this server, neither the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, nor any of its employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, including the warranties or merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights.

State of Pennsylvania privacy policy – information disclaimer

Information provided on the Commonwealth’s Web sites is intended to allow the public immediate access to public information.  While all attempts are made to provide accurate, current and reliable information we recognize the possibility of human and/or mechanical error.  Therefore, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, its employees, officers and agencies expressly deny any warranty of the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of any information published by this system and shall not be held liable for any losses caused by reliance upon the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of such information.  Any person who relies upon such information obtained from this system does so at his or her own risk.

So, bar owners and distributors have been warned: Don’t depend on this list to determine if the beers you’re selling are legally registered.

Importantly, a beer industry attorney who turned me onto these disclaimers told me, that warning applies to the cops, too.

Yet, it’s now clear the entire raid was sparked when the cops, acting on a complaint, matched the beer menu at the three bars with the online list of registered brands. That’s how they determined the likes of Duvel and another 20 or so brands were not registered. More than half of the brands, it turns out, were in fact registered properly.

I asked PLCB attorney Rod Diaz several questions about the disclaimer and the registration list, including:

Q. Can you explain how the PLCB expects licensees to determine if a beer is properly registered when the web site’s disclaimer clearly warns that the online list should not be used for any legal purposes?

A. “If I were a retail licensee, I think I’d call the board first. It’s always prudent to double-check.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 5:45 pm and is filed under Regs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.