The Maine Bureau of Liquor Enforcement has denied application labels for Santa's Butt Winter Porter and two other beers sold by the Shelton Brothers beer distributor.
The label for the English-made Santa's Butt Winter Porter features a rear view of a beer-drinking Santa Claus sitting atop a barrel. The beer's name refers not only to Santa's ample backside, but also to the barrel. In England, brewers once used a large barrel called a "butt" to store beer.
Maine also denied label applications for Les Sans Culottes, a French ale, and Rose de Gambrinus, a Belgian fruit beer.
Les Sans Culottes' label is illustrated with detail from Eugene Delacroix's 1830 painting "Liberty Leading the People," which hangs in the Louvre and once appeared on the 100-franc bill. Rose de Gambrinus shows a bare-breasted woman in a watercolor painting commissioned by the brewery.
Naturally, Shelton Brothers is calling the decision censorship, but the Maine State Police says the Santa's Butt drawing might appeal to children. I wonder if the bare-breasted women would appeal to 'em, too?
I'm not to keen on the naked breast labels, but I really don't see what's wrong with Santa's Butt, especially since he's not showing anything. That would have been in bad taste.
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