Queensland brewery Black Hops is battling a continuing storm of protest over its release of a beer called “Pussy Juice” last week.
The beer – a peach NEIPA – was launched with an accompanying innuendo laden poem on social media.
The brewery issued two apologies last week, with the second one noting that the beer was meant to be a celebration of its “epic bar team leader” whose nickname is AliCat (pictured, main).
The beer has also been renamed.
“We worked on something that in hindsight pushed the boundaries a bit too far,” the statement said. “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 one year of service.”
However, the brewery received widespread condemnation from both the media and the brewing industry.
In response to the furor, the brewery noted: “Misogynistic images, language and behaviour is not acceptable. It’s not OK in our behaviour, it’s not OK in our products, and it’s not OK in our actions at or away from work. This was not the intention of this beer release, but sometimes the behaviour is just as important as the intent and us announcing this beer was not OK. We hate the thought of women feeling out of place in any part of our industry, and we understand that our actions have resulted in exactly that.”
The IBA reposted a message from Sly Beer on Instagram that noted: “We have made great strides in beer around the world – many more women own, run and work in breweries, brewing beer, serving beer, and teaching beer. They drink beer. They write about beer. They photograph beer. They talk about beer. They share beer. They love beer.
“Today saw a brewery make a serious misstep posting marketing copy that objectified and sexualised women, and many were fairly bothered by it. They posted an apology and removed the post, but they have allowed post comments to go unmoderated and uncontested, where sexism continues to reign with women being called c*nts & cows, told the beer in question “isn’t for them” if they don’t like the sexualisation of women, and generally dismissed for being female because “they don’t like beer.”
“This bullshit is insidious and pervasive, and everyone in beer needs to be better than this. We are better than our past, than our stereotypes, than our gender bias and than our sexism. Beer can – and should – be welcoming, inclusive, and diverse. Breweries as businesses should be leading the way, not just because it’s right, but because it’s also good business. We as beer consumers, fans, photographers, writers, drinkers, servers, reps, retailers and brewers should call out sexism wherever and whenever we see it, and work hard to make beer a truly inclusive industry, profession and hobby.
“Let’s be better. Beer is for everyone.”
Pink Boots champions beer diversity
Pinks Boots Society, a global organisation that represents women working in the beer industry, also expressed its dismay. The Australian chapter issued this statement by Vice President Zoe Ottaway: “The Australian craft beer industry, on the whole, is wonderful. Consumers love it for the diversity in choice and, fortunately, the diversity is starting to be more seen from within. While beer is very much still a male dominated world, we are seeing more women working in related industries and consuming beer than years gone by.
“Unfortunately, today we saw a throwback to the old times, when women and their sexual worth was somehow an acceptable marketing practice. A brewery chose to release a beer with a provocative name accompanied by some deliberately immature and degrading commentary.
“There was a great opportunity here to celebrate one woman’s contribution to our industry, instead that brewery chose to take that recognition down an entirely different path.
“The reasons she was chosen to release her own beer is not the focus of their marketing for this beer – we should be celebrating her contributions instead of having this tired discussion.
“We write this not just as women working in the industry, but also as beer professionals. We want to see our industry grow. How are women meant to feel accepted in workplaces if we accept communications such as this?
“How can we expect female consumers – the greatest growth opportunity for breweries – to choose beer over other drink choices when they see this kind of marketing?
“We know not everyone is willing to understand our position, but we will continue to call out these decisions. The need to have scantily clad women in branding, sexual innuendo in words and other demeaning actions is no longer something that we will quietly stand by. It is degrading. It is tacky. It is simply not needed. We as an entire industry should be setting higher standards than this.”
