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The Seahawks have, hands down, the best fans in the entire NFL, at least when it comes to showing up for games and being loud. So why then have the Seahawks reportedly been selling their fans watered-down beer?!
Recently, KOMO News in Washington ran some tests on the beers that are routinely served at Seahawks games as well as Seattle Sounders games. And they found that the beer that's sold at CenturyLink Field has 0.2 to 0.6 percent less alcohol by volume than it should have in it. The alcohol levels were actually so low that, if the Seahawks are serving watered-down beer, they could be breaking federal laws.
Anheuser-Busch responded to the KOMO News report by running a series of tests on the beer served at CenturyLink Field—they own five of the six beers that KOMO News tested—and reported that they found "no irregularities." But if you're a Seahawks loyalist and you're forking over your hard-earned money on a regular basis to buy beer at CenturyLink Field, you might want to reconsider.
Watch the video above to hear more about the KOMO News report. Boo, watered-down beer.
UPDATE:
Here is the full statement that David Craig, Regional Vice President of Anheuser-Busch, released as a response to the KOMO News report:
"We sell only full-strength beer in the state of Washington. The Anheuser-Busch draft beers offered at CenturyLink Field, and throughout the state, are the same as the packaged beer consumers purchase at bars, restaurants, convenience stores and other retail locations including CenturyLink Field.
We use exacting processes to monitor and test alcohol content throughout the brewing and packaging process of all our beers to ensure quality, consistency and accuracy. Laws and regulations governing alcohol requirements vary by state and we abide by all such requirements. In addition, we strictly follow federal guidelines regulating our products to make sure every package of beer that leaves our breweries meets the correct specifications for alcohol content.
We analyzed the production for the beers sampled in this instance, including alcohol levels, and found no irregularities. Based on our findings, we believe the draft beers sampled at the stadium during those dates met the specifications.
When we learned of Jon Humbert’s and KOMO-TV’s inquiry, we proactively reached out to him and also organized a conversation between Jon and one of our brewing experts to share the findings of our analysis and the technical aspects of testing beer.
Beer has unique properties, and accurately measuring its alcohol content requires specific controls, equipment and expertise. A large number of variables could affect testing results including management of the sample, equipment used and how it’s calibrated, and the testing method. In this case, the collection and transport using a plastic container, the lab and testing method could all fail to protect the alcohol content, which would explain the same variance in all samples taken."
[via The Big Lead]
