Black Hops Brewing, a craft-brewer located south of Brisbane, Australia, on the Gold Coast has withdrawn after hefty protests a new product from the market just on the same day of its announcement.
On Thursday, the brewery announced on Facebook to launch a New England IPA, called Pussy Juice. The company described its new offering as “wet and ready in front of you, a ripe and juicy peach.” Further the company encouraged its beer drinkers to “press your face towards the opening as you drink the goodness in.” Finally the announcement said: “Get your mind out of the gutter boys (sic), it’s just a can of beer.”
Fans of the brewery were shocked after the posting, asking if the company was joking. In a first answer, the company tried to explain how they came up with the name:
“After 1 year of service we give each staff member their own custom beer. Normally we try to be a bit cheeky and creative with the beer names, styles and design. For our epic bar team leader, we worked on something that in hindsight pushed the boundaries a bit too far. Playing on her nickname AliCat as well as the words of a well known drink in the industry, and the ‘Juice’ referencing the beer style. She expected it to be seen as a pro-women celebration and something fun to mark her 1 year of service.”
One day later, the company apologized for the whole matter: “Yesterday after we realised we had stuffed up, we very quickly pulled it down and put up an apology. It wasn’t perfect, but we wanted to very quickly show that we understand we stuffed up and that we were sorry for the mistake.”
“Firstly our apology is not just about the beer name itself, it’s for the whole thing, including the copy that accompanied the post, which a lot of people, understandably felt particularly disgusted with.”
The company also said on Facebook and on their web-page: “It’s been a real wake up call for us, who for the most part live in our little bubble on the Gold Coast and forget that we are part of a broader, forward-thinking industry. We feel we have set the industry back more than a few notches, which is the exact opposite of everything we’ve tried to do from day one.”
Judging by the comments on Facebook, it seems that most of the fans of the 2-year old brewery have accepted the apologies.
