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De Molen changed the name of their Rasputin to Disputin due to dispute with North Coast Brewing.
Well it appears that beer name disputes are still going strong. Not too long ago, I was writing about the dispute between Rock Art and Monster Energy over Vermonster Barleywine's use of the word "monster". Now we have North Coast Brewing (Old Rasputin) and Brouwerij De Molen (Rasputin) trading shots over the use of the name "Rasputin". North Coast has approached De Molen with a possible trademark issue. De Molen has aptly changed their beer's name to Disputin, and added to the label the following statement concerning the issue:
"This stout used to be called Rasputin, but the people who make Old Rasputin in California thought you were too dumb to tell the two products apart, and threatened to sue us for trademark infringement."
De Molen's Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout is brewed in small batches, bottled in 750ml bottles with a pretty plain black and white label (see above photo), and I have only seen it sold for over $15 a bottle. It has very little resemblance to North Coast's Old Rasputin at all, especially when you consider label, bottle size (Old Rasputin is sold in 12 oz bottles), and price (somewhere around $8.99 a four pack). So on one hand, it seems that De Molen has some justification over getting a little upset over this one.
On the other hand, North Coast has worked very hard to solidify its status as creating one of the most well known Russian Imperial Stouts in the country (available here in Birmingham). It is known as a very solid and good RIS for a very affordable price. Having done all of that, I can see why they don't want to risk anyone getting confused over who's beer is who's. They want to keep people coming to them and spending money with them, so a name battle seems justified on their side as well.
This does seem a whole lot more relevant than the Rock Art vs. Monster Energy situation, considering we actually have two brewers involved in this situation. North Coast probably just wants to make sure that no one else decides to produce another RIS called Rasputin. Either way, it seems this has been worked out although with some hurt feelings on De Molen's side. These are both amazing beers and, as long as they are still around, craft beer is better for it.
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