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Recently, Wiccan astrologist and "healer" Vicki Noble was strolling through a beer aisle when she stumbled upon a bottle of Lost Abbey Witch's Wit. She had no issue with the wheat beer, spiced with grapefruit zest, orange peel and coriander. Instead, the illustrated label enflamed her: It featured a witch being burned at the stake.
Aghast, Noble headed home and shot off an irate email. "Can you imagine them showing a black person being lynched or a Jewish person going to the oven?" she wrote to her email list. "Such images are simply not tolerated in our society anymore (thank the Goddess) and this one should not be, either."
In these knee-jerk times, what came next should be no surprise: complaints flooded the brewery, accusing Port Brewing Company (Lost Abbey is a division) of "inspiring violence against women. . . . We have been compared to the violence in Darfur," brewery spokesman Sage Osterfeld told The New York Times.
The outcry will force the brewery to spend thousands of dollars to change the label. More importantly, in this writer's opinion, this sets a terrible precedent for other occult-themed beers. What's next, impish bogeyman protesting Wychwood Brewery's Hobgoblin brown ale? The devil rising up from the fiery depths to complain about Great Divide's Belgian-style Hades Ale and Unibroue's Maudite strong ale, whose label proudly features Satan? And what about Pumpkinhead? Think that vengeful demon is pleased to be on the label for Shipyard's Pumpkinhead ale?
If these ne'er-do-wells indulge their litigious ways, sipping a beer on Halloween will never again be the same.
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10-27-2010 @5:37PM MrsB said... First up, the brewery hasn't been forced to change anything. According to their website, they'll be discussing their label at their November meeting.
Secondly, there were real women burned at the stake, and real people all over the world still being persecuted in the name of witchcraft. If you doubt it, try googling "Malawi witches", "African child witches", "women lynched in India for witchcraft" or "woman killed in Gaza for witchcraft".
Depicting real atrocities is a little different from a picture of a pumpkin headed demon.
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10-30-2010 @9:08PM Bob said... cut me a break. so freekin politically correct you make me gag. It is history, so I guess you want to re-write that too? what a bunch of politically correct whiners you are.
10-30-2010 @10:27PM Dusty754 said... 10-30-2010 @9:08PM Bob said... cut me a break. so freekin politically correct you make me gag. It is history, so I guess you want to re-write that too? what a bunch of politically correct whiners you are.
Yes it is history, but why does it need to be depicted on a bottle of beer?
I mean so were things like beheadings at the guillotine, skulls being crushed during inquisitions, and various other acts of inhumanity to man. But that does not mean that they have to be used as advertisements.
10-30-2010 @11:45PM lolabull said... The world would be a better place if we could STILL burn people like this harlet at the stake. She's obviously a miserable waste of space anyway bitching about something as miniscule as this?
10-31-2010 @12:17AM BTDT said... All else aside, wheat beer sucks. I mean it really sucks. Shouldn't even be called beer.
10-31-2010 @5:30AM A. B. said... Frankly, I know just how Samantha feels. The VERY SAME THING was done to me, personally, by another brewery. I am currently pursuing litigation.
The Arrogant Bastard
10-27-2010 @5:47PM Veronica said... Oh, come on, don't be so flippant. It's not about the depiction of a which that drew the complaint, it's the image of the BURNING of a woman that did it. There are a million ways to do clever imagery for a beer called Witches Wit without calling to mind brutal and violent acts against real people in the past.
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10-31-2010 @12:29AM Lisa said... I beg to differ Veronica! There are men as well as women wiccans and she was upset over the fact that it depicted a "witch" not a "woman". But how can she try and compare it to a black person being lynched or a Jewish person being baked or gassed or whatever she means?! Those people are real and suffered horribly! Witches are not real! Even wicca is just a religion that people CHOOSE to follow. There is no magic except what Satan performs in the disguise of being "Mother Earth" and of course they believe what they want to believe! What about the orgies that wiccans participate in? Maybe that should be on a label LOL! And then to say "Thank the Goddess"?! Only shows me, as a Christian, that anything goes as far as "equal rights"! We already can't enjoy Christmas, CHRIST'S Birthday, because of people like her! I bet if it had Christ being crucified on the label she would have bought a case!
10-27-2010 @6:50PM Richard said... If you set aside the word "witch" and just look at what the picture shows...it is a picture of a horrified woman being burned alive. How can that NOT be ugly and disturbing? Port Brewing Company really dropped the ball on this one.
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10-31-2010 @5:57PM Blh74jr said... All I want to know is where can I get a 6 pack of this beer? If everybody is so upset about this I definitely want a 6 pack to commerate the piece of American History. We as a society are to sensitive now. We need to toughen up a bit that's why are kids are a bunch of punks and cry about everything because that is all they see is adults crying about any and everything.
Grow up people.
10-27-2010 @7:26PM Amanda said... You do realize that the Salem witch trials were REAL, right? Impish bogeymen and vengeful demons are fictional creatures, but the women who were burned at the stake did exist. Women and Wiccans alike have every reason to be offended by an image of a horrified woman/witch being burned alive on a beer label. You sound like a total moron.
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10-27-2010 @9:09PM Mantelli said... Amanda, you're quite true that many men and women have been burned for witchcraft, but nobody was burned at Salem. Fourteen women and five men were hanged, and another was pressed to death under heavy stones.
Although it's perfectly reasonable to protest the imagery of this label, associating it with Salem is neither accurate nor necessary.
10-27-2010 @9:14PM Amanda said... Mantelli, you're missing the point. Salem is simply the most notorious of the witch trials, and one that well illustrates the point that the author's flippancy about the offensive nature of this image is ignoring a long history of violence against women, in this case those accused of being witches.
11-11-2010 @10:06PM Coop said... No, Amanda, YOU'RE missing the point, which is this: Real women burned at the stake because some unsophisticated people believed them to be witches. They weren't actually witches. Because there's no such thing as a "witch." (You can be a wiccan, I suppose, if you want. But, this is about hocus-pocus, black kettle stirring, pointy hat wearing, broom riding fictional characters.)
11-11-2010 @10:26PM Amanda said... Coop, the woman on the bottle has no black kettle, pointy hat, or broom. The image depicted on that label is a terrified woman, just like the women who were murdered because "unsophisticated people believed them to be witches."
If the designer of label wanted an imaginary witch, a black pointy hat, kettle, broom, and wart on the nose with no stakes nearby would have been perfectly appropriate and not at all offensive.
10-27-2010 @11:08PM Donna said... ++More importantly, in this writer's opinion, this sets a terrible precedent for other occult-themed beers.++
No it won't. Not even a little bit because no body in their right mind would consider "occult-themed" to be the same as "burning a woman at the stake."
Sorry, but that's just BS. Maybe next time the marketing department at this brewery will show a bit more sense than to use a horrific form of killing as a label for their beer.
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10-28-2010 @12:07PM gobo said... It's kind of bizarre to feature a horrible torturous execution on your beer label, indeed.
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10-28-2010 @2:10PM perrin515 said... Oh c'mon. I mean really? This may depict a woman but it could also be a male. It has nothing to do with the sex of the figure. Yes, it is a grusome death, I will agree. However, The name is what give the picture context! Just because this happened in the past means that the witch art nazi's have to come and make them change the label. I dont see this woman going around and making publishers change books.
Though goblins may not be real, what is stopping fanatic christians or catholics from forcing some of the best breweries in the world from taking satan off of their label? To many religions demons and satan are as real witch burnings.
Whats next, are mormons going to make lost abby change their angels share label so that it doesnt dipict an angel in connection with alcohol?
Get over it, it is art and the breweries Interpretation of their product. If you don't like it, don't buy it. Simple as that.
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10-29-2010 @9:08AM MrsB said... Just one little thing there, though: burning women at the stake is something that can be proven to have happened. Satan and angels are one religions idea, not proven in any form of fact.
Not exactly the same thing.
10-31-2010 @11:37AM Coop said... There seem to be three lines of thought here: You've got the flakes who think they are witches crying because this beer label depicts a witch being burned at the stake. To them I say this: OK - you claim to follow some sort of bona fide religion in which you are actually a witch. Fine. That's not what's being portrayed here. This label is portraying the Wizard of Oz make-believe sort of witch which is pretty much what most of us think ALL witches are, but whatever. There are people running around who truly believe they are Vulcans, too.
Then you've got the REAL flakes - the femi-nazis who have twisted this into a women's rights issue because, well, you know, if you ignore the fact that the label clearly says "witch," well, the witch on the label does happen to be a woman so clearly the artist intends to send the message that it's OK to set women on fire. . . All I can say to that sort of mindset is that your oversensitivity will tend to make people want to set you on fire. Nobody else is digging that hard for some underlying "message," so why are you?
Then you've got the people who recognize this for what it is: a freaking beer bottle label with no "message" - intentional or otherwise - except to sell the beer.
Ultimately, you have the choice to buy or not buy the beer. But, if you refuse to buy the beer because you don't like the label, aren't you discriminating? Aren't you ignoring the potential inner qualities of the beer itself based solely on the package? Aren't you, yourself, engaging in the very behavior you claim to be against?