USA: A Portland artisan brewing company will bow to the wishes of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and stop selling Governator Ale, a popular beer that has been a big seller in California, Associated Press reported on April 1. "We've agreed to settle," Portland Brewing chief executive Jerome Chicvara said Tuesday. "We're saying we're not going to argue - we're going to acquiesce to their point of view, and we're not supposed to say anything more."

In December, Chicvara sent 4,500 cases of 22-oz. bottles of Governator to California, where it was a hit at $2.99 a bottle. The brew became the darling of bloggers worldwide, thanks to articles on CNN and MSN online pages. Chicvara says a couple of hundred cases are still in Oregon, mostly at Columbia Distributing, but that collectors elsewhere have been paying about $20 for a bottle of Governator on eBay.

02 April, 2004