When Sycamore Brewing started teasing the release of its annual Christmas Cookie Winter Ale, fans of the Charlotte, North Carolina beermaker were hyped about the beer, but they were extra-hyped about the artwork on the can. “I am going to need y’all to turn that pattern into sweaters,” one Instagram commenter wrote. “Please and thank you.”
The red, white, and blue can features a well-centered sycamore leaf—the brewery’s logo—surrounded by snowflakes, a background snow shower, and a number of reindeer who have all paired off and are enthusiastically giving each other that rein-dick.
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The design is subtle, but yeah, Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen are all fucking in several different positions, most of which are probably impossible for one of nature’s most inflexible-looking animals. (I’m not sure, and I’m also not Googling it.)
And although some social media commenters saw the can and thought “I want that to be embroidered on a shirt,” someone else saw the reindeer and immediately reported Sycamore to the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission. According to Charlotte Agenda, thanks to that anonymous tip, the brewery got a mid-week visit from an Alcohol Law Enforcement (ALE) agent.
An ALE agent who was not the one who went to Sycamore to have a Very Serious Conversation about illustrated reindeer sucking each other off told the website that the label likely violated the agency’s rules prohibiting obscene material, and the brewery didn’t submit it for approval before producing the cans either. As a result, Sycamore will most likely face a fine of between $500 and $1,000.
“We’re in a moment in our country where the president is up for impeachment, there are school shootings, there’s all this horrible stuff going on,” Sycamore co-owner Justin Brigham said. “And you know, seven-and-a-half percent (ABV) beer that tastes like cookies, with pixelated reindeer? That’s a nice reprieve I think.”
A spokesperson for the Harris Teeter supermarket chain, which is based in nearby Matthews, confirmed to Queen City Nerve that although two stores received a small quantity of Christmas Cookie Winter Ale, the cans were never put on display. (Customers were allow to request it, and I sincerely hope someone asked for “the Christmas fuck beer.”) One retailer that Sycamore declined to name also told the brewery that they’d rather not carry the beer this year.
The artwork, which co-owner Sarah Brigham described as an “animal Kama Sutra,” was originally supposed to be used on a beer called Naughty Bear, but when that release was scrapped, it was printed on Christmas Cookie instead.
The remaining cans will be re-labeled with the non-sexual artwork from last year’s release, and they’ll be available for sale in Sycamore’s taproom. Please don’t snitch on them again—that’s not the holiday spirit.
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