When Mary Berry Sends Your Brewery a Cease and Desist Letter, Make 'Cease and Desistberry' Beer

Mike Pomranz

Richmond, California's Armistice Brewing Company was brewing a massive new pastry stout. Mary Berry is well-known for her tenure on The Great British Baking Show. So it seemed like a sensible decision: Take a beer that was inspired by a baked good and name it after a baking-based reality show star—thus, Mary Berry Pastry Stout. But there was just one small problem: Mary Berry. Her legal team caught wind of the forthcoming new brew—and a cease-and-desist letter sent Armistice Brewing back to the drawing board.

NurPhoto/Getty Images
NurPhoto/Getty Images

After using Instagram to promote the beer—which beyond the name, also somewhat egregiously featured Mary Berry's face on the label—brewery co-founder Gregory Zobel said they received a cease-and-desist email within hours. “They said, 'You're using her image without consent, please remove and contact immediately,'” he told the SF Gate. “It was totally intended as an homage,” co-founder and sibling Alex Zobel, added, “but I get it, people gotta protect their image to the public.”

Still, the brewery couldn't let the pastry stout—which was made with red raspberry purree, two different kinds of single-origin cacao nibs, and Madagascar vanilla beans—go to waste. So they explained on Instagram that they would be “pouring thousands into a sophisticated rebrand.” The result: Cease and Desistberry Pastry Stout—the exact same beer but with the new name stuck over the old one and an upside-down smiley face sticker covering Mary Berry's visage.

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🚨🙃PASTRY STOUT LIVES! BOTTLE RELEASE THIS FRIDAY🙃🚨 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ After we received a cease-and-desist from the agency representing British baking celeb (whose name may or may not rhyme with Hairy Larry), we spent thousands on a last-minute re-design with a boutique branding agency in London. The new name: Cease and Desistberry Pastry Stout. They did a bang-up job on the artwork for the new concept, and we’re sure that all that money was very well spent. Cease and Desistberry is a massive 10.4% pastry stout brewed with a silky milk-sugar finish. We added over two hundred pounds of red raspberry purree and two different kinds of single-origin cacao nibs from our friends at Dandelion Chocolate in San Francisco. Then we recirculated it on three pounds of Madagascar vanilla beans. The result is like a rich, decadent, double dark chocolate truffle with raspberries and vanilla bean whipped cream. Some might call it a good bake. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 🚨IMPORTANT RELEASE INFO🚨 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Wanna grab your share of the (in)famous Cease and Desistberry? We’re releasing 500ml bottles THIS FRIDAY (9/20) in the taproom! Bottles are $19 each, and will be available when we open the taproom at noon. Can’t make it to the taproom on Friday? No worries! We have an online ordering site where you can reserve your bottles for pickup. Online reservations start at 8am on Friday and can be placed by going to ToastTab.com/ArmisticeBeer. If you order online, you’ll have until Friday, September 27 (1 week) to pickup your orders. After that, the leftover orders will be resold with no refund. Please remember that we cannot give you your online order unless you present your photo ID and the credit card that you paid for the order with. See you Friday! 🙃🙃🙃 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Quick Details: ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ What: “Cease and Desistberry” Pasty Stout Bottle Release DATE: Friday, September 20 Online Reservations: 8am to Sold Out Taproom Sales/Pickups: 12pm to Sold Out PRICE: $19/bottle LIMITS: TBD Online Order Link: ToastTab.com/ArmisticeBeer

A post shared by Armistice Brewing Company (@armisticebeer) on Sep 18, 2019 at 11:44am PDT

The newly renamed stout goes on sale today at the Armistice Brewing taproom or can be reserved for pickup online starting at 8 a.m. PT at ToastTab.com/ArmisticeBeer. The 500-milliliter bottles are selling for $19 each—with, for the record, none of the proceeds going to Mary Berry.

Meanwhile, the irony in all of this is that, by sending the cease-and-desist letter, Berry's lawyers created a bit of a “Streisand effect”—giving the brew far more publicity than it would have gotten without the controversy. That said, it seems like a win-win for everybody: Armistice got word out about their beer, and Mary Berry doesn't have to worry about anything thinking that she personally endorsed it. Plus, her lawyers got to earn their keep—so call it a win-win-win.