Beer at sporting events is already overpriced but if you go to CenturyLink Field in order to see a Seattle Seahawks or Seattle Sounders game, you may be served some watered-down beer that, in some cases, breaks federal law.
At least, that’s what KOMO News found when they ran tests on beer samples from the stadium. Even though watering down beer isn’t easy as it would mean that a whole production would have to be altered to make it happen, every beer that the news station tested came back with a lower alcohol content than it was reported to have. While federal law allows for a .3% variance between the posted alcohol content and the actual alcohol content of the beer served, beers sold at CenturyLink were all between .2% and .6% below their reported content level.
Stella Artois:
5.0% advertised ABV
4.8% testedBud Light:
4.2% advertised
3.9% testedRedhook Brewery No Equal:
5.2% advertised
4.8% testedShocktop:
5.2% advertised
4.7% testedBass Pale Ale:
5.1% advertised
4.5% testedBudweiser:
5.0% advertised
4.4% tested
Anheuser-Busch has responded by saying that they have experienced “no irregularities” with their beer production.
The testing process could partially explain why every beer was below its labeled ABV but the testers were also certain that the testing wouldn’t explain all the discrepancies found.
With how loud CenturyLink is during Seahawks game already, can you imagine what it would be like if the stadium sold non-watered down beer? C’mon Seattle, your stadium is already artificially geared towards inflating stadium noise. You might as well go all the way and make sure that your fans are properly rowdy as well.
