The craft beer world is dotted with provocative names and labeling, but a rising outcry that some aren’t so much racy as they are offensive may lead some in the industry to rein in those tactics when hundreds of breweries take part in this year’s Great American Beer Festival.

The Brewers Association, a Boulder-based trade association that hosts the festival, has updated its advertising and marketing code, placing restrictions on the marketing of beer with brand names and labels seen as sexually explicit, lewd or demeaning.

The reaction within the beer community here in Colorado, a state with the second-most craft breweries per capita, has been mixed — some wish the rules went further, and others think the association is digging itself into a hole. But there’s at least one consensus: Breweries that want to win a coveted Great American Beer Festival award may need to give their names and labels a second thought.

“This is a community that we need to see nurtured, and we know that we need to continue to do better to have a more diverse community than we have today,” said Julia Herz, craft beer program director with the Brewers Association.

An independent, three-member panel who bring expertise from academia, marketing and law will take up a case when another brewery lodges a complaint. If a brand name wins an award but has been deemed inappropriate, it is not allowed to use names and logos from the Great American Beer Festival, which will be Oct. 5-7 in Denver, or World Beer Cup to promote their winning beer.

Read more at The Denver Post