Coors sues Oklahoma company over bottle caps - Coors Brewing Co., Zapata Industries Inc - Brief Article

Modern Brewery Age, August 27, 2001

The Coors Brewing Co. has filed a lawsuit against a company in Muskogee, Oklahoma, that it accuses of making defective beer bottle caps.

Coors, based in Golden, Colo., filed the lawsuit in Denver against Zapata Industries Inc. The lawsuit alleges that the defective bottle caps caused Coors Light in seven-ounce bottles to become undrinkable for a period in 1999, forcing the company to shut down its Memphis, Tenn., brewery.

Coors bottled Coors Light in seven-ounce bottles only at its Memphis brewery. It alleges that Zapata's caps caused the beer to taste like cardboard or paper. A different cap is used on 12-ounce bottles.

The Memphis brewery was shut down to find the problem, Coors spokesperson report, and the beer in seven-ounce bottles had to be destroyed, Coors said. Coors claimed that the bad taste resulted from the oxidation of materials in the cap liners.

The lawsuit said Zapata designed and made the caps specifically for Coors' seven-ounce bottles. Zapata also supplied caps to Coors breweries in Colorado and Virginia, according to the lawsuit. Coors is seeking damages of not less than $3 million.

A woman who answered the telephone at Zapata Industries said she was instructed to say that the company had no comment.