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A tale of two imperial stouts: Three Floyds Brewing Co.'s Black Flame (left) and White Flame Brewing Co.'s Black Flame (right).

(Courtesy | Bill White)

HUDSONVILLE, MI -- Not every beer industry trademark dispute, or potential dispute, involves lawyers, barbed statements and social media bickering and backlash.

Sometimes, brewers settle it over - you guessed it - a beer.

That's how it went for Bill White and Andy Steenbergen of White Flame Brewing Co. of Hudsonville, who drove down to Indiana this month to work out a cordial trademark agreement with Three Floyds Brewing Co. of Munster.

Each brewery bottled an imperial stout this year named "Black Flame."

"We got quite a bit of internet chatter about it," said Bill White, who opened White Flame brewery in Hudsonville in 2012.

White's Black Flame is an imperial stout aged in maple syrup bourbon barrels. The microbrewery made a limited run of about 600 Black Flame bottles as a special anniversary beer this winter, the third year it's been available.

Three Floyds, which made about 21,000 total barrels in 2014, is Indiana's second-largest beer-maker. Its Black Flame was also a special, limited-run beer.

White only found out about Three Floyds' beer in February. He sent the brewery an email that gave some background on his beer and asked for a discussion. He and head brewer Steenbergen visited Munster on March 6.

"They were super cool guys," he said. "They bought us a beer and fed us lunch."

White said the Indiana brewery agreed to discontinue use of the name after their run of bottles is finished. The deal was struck with a handshake.

"That's how I think things should be worked out," said White.

Contrast that with the latest trademark squabble to roil the craft beer community. This week, Bell's Brewery poked the hornets nest by challenging a smaller North Carolina brewery's effort to federally trademark the name "Innovation Brewing."

Bell's claims the name infringes on its company slogan, "bottling innovation since 1985," and would cause confusion in the marketplace. The two breweries have been trading statements on social media, where outraged craft beer fans are ensconced in heated arguments about whether Bell's is being a trademark bully.

Trademark disputes between U.S. craft brewers have become almost too numerous to list in recent years and frequently cause tensions in a rapidly growing industry. Like most companies that initiate a dispute, Bell's says it's duty-bound to protect its trademark in commerce, lest it become diluted by lack of protective effort.

Generally, the craft beer customer base has little patience for the legal actions, which chip away at the cloak of camaraderie and collaboration in which the industry tends to wrap itself. In January, Lagunitas Brewing in California bowed to public opinion and dropped a trademark suit against rival Sierra Nevada.

White said he was more than happy to resolve the issue out of court. There was a shared desire to leave the lawyers out of it, he said, even though his negotiating position was weakened by the lack of a federally registered trademark on Black Flame.

"It could have been totally different," he said. "If they'd said, "Sorry, we intend to keep this name and you're just a little guy in Michigan, and blah blah blah,' I probably would have said, 'Yea, I am just a little guy. Keep doing what you're doing."

Calls to Three Floyds management were not immediately returned.

Garret Ellison covers business, government, environment and breaking news for MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. Email him at gellison@mlive.com or follow on Twitter & Instagram