Meet The Mysterious Man Who Controls The Beer Industry

Daily Beast reporter Tim Mak wrote a fascinating article about Kent "Battle" Martin, whose work you see everyday, but whom few know anything about.

Martin is known for approving practically every beer bottle and label on the market for the Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). He's also known for being highly enigmatic.

He's so secretive in fact that the publication wasn't even able to interview the regulator himself.

Regardless, here are some interesting tidbits about the most powerful man in the brewing world that they were able to dig up:

• He goes by the name "Battle."

• Martin has approved over 29,500 beer labels just this year.

• The Tax and Trade Bureau would not even tell The Daily Beast any basic biographical details about Martin. Good luck Googling him.

• He is described as awkward and robotic. Brewers say they've received approvals and notices coming in the middle of the night. There was even one anecdote of him at a craft brewers' conference working on several laptops at once, simultaneously looking at different labels.

• Martin once rejected a beer label for the King of Hearts because the image of the heart on the bottle implied that the beer would have health benefits.

• He also rejected a beer label called St. Paula's Liquid Wisdom because he thought it made the medical claim of granting wisdom.

• Finally he rejected the label of a beer called Bad Elf because it featured an "Elf Warning" that said elves should not drink while making toys. Battle thought the warning was confusing to consumers.

Read more about Kent "Battle" Martin over at The Daily Beast.