Photo courtesy of Freewilliamsburg.com

(Brooklyn, NY) – Sadly, the image you see up top is one that was taken down off of the Sixpoint Craft Ales site last month. Why? In a note sent out to Sixpoint fans late last week, Brewmaster, Shane Welch, details what went down with the Feds and the brewery’s Hop Obama Ale last November [ed: you might also remember that I wrote about similar problems for Obamagang and Obama Brau]:

“Sixpoint was raided by the Feds and they put the kabosh on our Hop Obama. Naturally, I was infuriated by the censorship so I decided to do what I’ve done from the start – turn it into a story and allow the company to serve as a platform for delivering the story. However, this was quickly squashed by the Feds as well. Apparently, they did not want us making the beer NOR did they want me to create a story out of it.

Then, the plot thickens….The Department of Homeland Security gets involved. We recently received an official cease and desist letter from them claiming we must take immediate acts to shut down and exterminate our production, dissemination, and distribution of this brand or the Federal government will enact punitive fines and/or seize control of our brewery.

Don’t worry though, the Hop Obama will live on, and be stronger than it ever was. We have a plan…. Kind of like Obi-wan Kenobi when he was struck down by Vader and came back as the guiding voice for Luke Skywalker. There will be a new reincarnation of the beer, along with many others.

Speaking of many others…the largest assembly of Sixpoint beers to date will be at Barcade this Tuesday, Feb 17th – I sent out an invite a few minutes ago, you most definitely don’t want to miss this one if you’re around…”

And then…

“Please everyone, no more phone calls or emails about the Feds crashing through our windows with teargas and rifles to shut down the brewery.

Also, I just received a phone call from the Feds in Wash DC about this and other related things, so please stop.

All of this happened months ago – way back in November, and we decided not to tell anyone about it. We quietly destroyed visual remnants of the Hop Obama (the beer was already long gone, but we removed it from our website and got rid of the printed material) and went along with our business.

The funny thing about this whole situation is we actually already stopped making this beer before the Feds even ordered us to stop. Immediately fter the election, before the Feds contacted us, we didn’t make a single batch of Hop Obama and the beer was out-of-stock at our distributor.

It was only after the election – late November – that the Feds stepped in an ordered us to stop. We had prior label approval from them, but apparently they didn’t want us to do it.

People had been asking me about the Hop Obama recently, and when we will be making it again, so I wanted to set the record straight and tell you- THERE WILL BE NO MORE HOP OBAMA AND THE REASON WHY IS THE FEDS WILL NOT ALLOW IT.

However, as I said, we can reincarnate the beer, but we just can’t call it the Hop Obama. The recipe is not the problem, its the use of the name without the government and President’s approval for our beer.

How about the Abomination Ale?

Get it? hehehe Obama-Nation ale? :-D”

Credit to MyBeerBuzz for finding it before I did…