Free beer promotion becomes $1 beer

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska, June 20 (UPI) -- An Alaska airline's "free beer" promotion ran afoul of state laws and the company will now charge $1 a glass, officials said.

Micah Lillard, marketing manager for the Era Alaska airline, said officials ran into some "unforeseen challenges" with the promotion, which would have offered free samples of Denali Brewing Co.'s "Single Engine Red" with each additional 6-oz. beer costing $3 per glass, KMXT-FM, Kodiak, reported Wednesday.

"We have gone ahead and decided to charge for the first one and lower any additional samples after that," Lillard said.

Shirley Gifford, director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, said the "unforeseen challenges" were state pricing and marketing statutes banning free alcoholic beverages from being used as a marketing tool.

"We'd gotten wind of it yesterday and I saw it on the news last night and of course it created some questions for us. And working with Era, they decided they would just go ahead and charge for the beer," Gifford said.