‘Hop Notch’ to ‘Hop Nosh’

In the beer world the most over used descriptor word depicted on a beer label is Hop. If it rhymes with Hop or if Hop can be utilized to substitute for another part of a word - it's likely to be adorning some label somewhere in the world. There are hundreds of labels from breweries all over the globe that try to provide the consumer with some clever, unique pun in association with a particular hoppy beer. And every day the field get's narrower and narrower.

Because there are such limited uses and just so many names available, people and entities are hunkering down and ready to go to legal blows to protect their "intellectual" property. Case in point, our beloved Hop Notch from Uinta Brewing. 

Uinta  has agreed to change the name of Hop Notch, the brewery’s best selling beer and one of the fastest-growing IPAs in the country, following a request from Massachusetts-based Notch Brewing, which owns trademark for the word “Notch” as it relates to beer and breweries. Notch Brewing claimed that Hop Notch was creating marketplace confusion.

Uinta will sell 66,000 barrels this year. Hop Notch comprises about 35 percent of the brewery’s total sales volume. By comparison, Notch Brewing, which produces under contract at Two Roads Brewing in Stratford, Conn. and Mercury Brewing in Ipswich, Mass., expects to produce 2,000 barrels of beer in 2013.

So basically Uinta could be spending it's money on useless litigation or concentrate on it's massive brewery expansion and making great beers. They chose the latter. In place of Notch you'll now see Nosh (meaning light meal). It still sorta works as a name and had we never brought it up you may have missed it. So welcome Hop Nosh to your fridges and watering holes - the “Hop Notch” to “Hop Nosh” transition will roll out with the new year.

It goes without saying, nothing inside the can, bottle or keg will change. I'll roll my eyes and shake my head at this legal stupidity, but as long as my tongue is happy, I could give a shit. 

Cheers!