Oskar Blues forced to change name of popular Gordon beer
According to a story on the Denver Westwood blog, Oskar Blues will change the name of one of its four year-round beers after the Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant Group threatened to sue the Colorado company for trademark infringement.
Gordon, the Oskar Blues beer, is named for Gordon Knight, a fire-fighting helicopter pilot and brewer who helped create the Twisted Pine, Wolf Tongue and Estes Park breweries in the early 1990s. Knight was killed in 2002 when the helicopter he was using to drop water on a fire near Lyons crashed.
The beer will be renamed G’Knight, and Oskar Blues will hold a party on February 19 at its Tasty Weasel tap house in Longmont, to celebrate the beer and its namesake. Knight’s birthday was February 20; he would have been 61.
The recipe for the beer, an unusual cross between a red and a double IPA that was first canned in 2005, will stay the same, as will the green color of the can, but Oskar Blues can no longer use the word “Gordon” anywhere on the label. Gordon Knight’s name will also be removed from the tribute, which reads, “If you knew Gordon Knight, this ale needs no explanation. If you didn’t, we’re sorry.” In addition, the words “Big. Red. Sticky.” will be changed to “Still Big. Still Red. Still Sticky.”