What do you get when you combine sweet tea, beer, Gov. Kay Ivey and Colonel Sanders?
A Huntsville small-batch brewery took inspiration from the Southern staple to produce KIV Sweet Tea Sour, a beer fermented with local honey and cold conditioned with black tea and fresh lemon zest that went on sale last week.
Cans of the sweet tea-inspired beverage feature the likeness of the Alabama governor wearing the bow tie of KFC symbol Colonel Sanders.
The can’s design is also set in KFC’s red-and-white theme, while “KFC” is replaced with “KIV.”
Chandlers Ford Brewing, the nanobrewery operating out of Beezr in Huntsville, said cans of KIV Sweet Tea Sour sold out last week but a fresh batch became available Friday.
The governor wished the brand well through her spokeswoman.
“I hope the KIV is a top seller for Chandlers Ford Brewing. Y’all buy local!” Ivey said.
She is not the only Alabama governor whose likeness has been used to market a beer.
Salty Nut Brewery, also in Huntsville, debuted Unimpeachable Pale Ale, which featured then-Gov. Robert Bentley squeezing a peach made to look like a sexually suggestive body part, in 2016.
The beer was a take on the scandal involving the governor’s affair with aide Rebekah Mason. At the time of Unimepeachable Pale Ale’s debut, the state Legislature was seriously considering impeaching Bentley, who was spared the punishment by resigning.
