The following article appeared in the November 25, 2024, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with smart and original local news for Charlotte. We offer free and paid subscription plans. More info here.
Attention-grabbing cans: Sycamore is back at it with suggestive holiday beer labels
If it’s almost time for Thanksgiving, then it’s almost time for Christmas.
And if it’s almost time for Christmas, then it’s time for Charlotte’s largest brewery, Sycamore Brewing, to release its risqué label designs for its Christmas Cookie Winter Ale.
Some people consider Sycamore’s annual tradition to be hilarious and others consider it to be juvenile and inappropriate, but either way, it’s back: The company released the design last week on its social media channels, and it depicts snowmen rolling snowballs and sledding in a frozen landscape that resembles parts of the male and female anatomy:
Sycamore leaned into the double entendres in an extensive Instagram post, saying the beer is “full-bodied,” “as nutty as a sack of chestnuts” and is “guaranteed to leave you feeling warm and tingly ALL over.”
Sycamore, whose beer is sold in its South End taproom as well as at retailers and restaurants, is Charlotte’s largest brewery by production. It has been selling limited edition winter ale with risqué cans for the last several years — most famously in 2019, when a tip to the N.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission about that year’s can featuring frisky reindeer images led to a visit by Alcohol Law Enforcement. The unapproved design led to a $1,000 fine.
Since then, the annual label designs have included gingerbread men in bondage and snowflake-shaped sex toys. Last year’s design, featuring Christmas ornaments with long legs and high heels posing in provocative positions with folding chairs and lingerie, was deemed “tame” by some social media users, The Ledger reported at the time. The ABC Commission approved at least some of those designs, and there have been no further fines.
It’s unclear if the ABC Commission approved this year’s design. Sycamore has also branched into merch, featuring the designs on wrapping paper and on long-sleeve T-shirts that read: “Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animals.” —Tony Mecia
Related Ledger articles:
“Is Sycamore going too prude on Christmas beer cans this year?” (Nov. 29, 2023)
“ABC files: Reporter’s email launched ALE investigation into reindeer-sex beer can” (🔒, June 10, 2020)
“Sycamore Brewing: You can’t spell ‘Christmas’ without the ‘S’ and ‘M’” (Nov. 16, 2020)
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Staff writer: Lindsey Banks; Business manager: Brie Chrisman