A Skull Splitting Headache

What's in a name? In Scotland, a wee bit of trouble.

Britain's most remote brewery, on the Orkney Islands, contends that a drinks industry group is trying force it to change the name of one its ales: Skull Splitter.

The dispute comes as the Scottish government is pushing measures aimed at curbing alcohol abuse, including raising the minimum age for retail purchases to 21 and making alcohol retailers pay a levy. The drinks industry has argued that Edinburgh is trying to curb alcohol use, not alcohol abuse.

The changes are important to the industry because depending on what Scotland does, all of Britain may follow, given the widespread concern over binge drinking by the nation's youth.

So the industry may be overly sensitive about names, even when it comes to a prized cult beer.

The industry-funded group, the Portman Group, hired a management consulting firm earlier this year to examine 485 alcohol products in Britain to see if they complied with the industry's code of practices.

The report found 32 violations and singled out one beer, Skull Splitter, because "its name implies violence."

The Orkney Brewery says it has "repeatedly stressed" to the Portman Group that the ale "is in fact named after Thorfinn Hausakluif, the Seventh Viking Earl of Orkney -- nicknamed 'Skull Splitter.' " (The bottle label does feature a picture of a viking.)

"They have chosen to disregard everything we've said about the history of Orkney and the associated branding of what is a carefully crafted and well loved product, enjoyed the world over," said Norman Sinclair, managing director of the brewery's parent company, Sinclair Breweries Ltd.

The brewery, which began 20 years ago, is mounting a challenge, saying that industry group could move to instruct British retailers not to stock Skull Splitter.

(The Beer Advocate web site, by the way, gives Skull Splitter a grade of A minus.)

One thing that doesn't work in the brewery's defense is the relatively high alcohol content of Skull Splitter, at 8.5 percent. The report also cited "the impact the strength may have on the drinker."

by Jeffrey Cane

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