BrewDog No Label: Tastes Like Pinkwashing

A company has created what it claims is the world’s first “transgender” beer – using hops that have changed sex from male to female.

Scottish brewing company Brewdog launched the new product, No Label – which it claims “captures the spirit of Soho itself”.

Brewdog explained: “No Label is the world’s first ‘non-binary, transgender beer’ designed to reflect the diversity of the area and champion inclusivity.

“This 4.6% ABV Kölsch has been brewed with hops that have changed sex from female to male flowers prior to harvest.

“We have used these to emphasise that, just like humans, beer can be whatever the hell it wants to be, and proud of it.” ...

“The beer draws parallels with individuals who identify themselves in a similar ‘non-binary’ way, as neither exclusively male nor female – a community of people that is still largely under-acknowledged by society...

Profits from the beer will be donated to queer event collective Queerest of the Queer, in turn to support trans communities.

Pink News.

It really is baffling that Queerest of the Queer would not only be involved with this, but open their post on it by decrying pinkwashing.

— How Upsetting (@How_Upsetting) November 5, 2015

Queerest of the Queer aren't the people you call when you want to pink wash - we don't give you easy credits on your corporate social responsibility - we're a collection of politically minded queers into performance and creating queer spaces.

So when BrewDog responded to our challenge to talk about their fundraising video and how they could seriously re-engage with and make amends to the LGBTQ+ community they weren't taking the easy track.

We met and started to talk about levels of oppression and how Cis, White, Rich, Gay men are not the only voice, even if they are a loud voice. There are other lived experiences. We had long animated discussions, including how charitable money doesn't often end up going to the grass roots organisations that help LGBTQ+ youth, especially when they are supporting the homeless and refugees.

Then we got talking about the history of brewing, the role of women in early brewing that was slowly erased, and the work Brew Dog are doing, and should continue to do, to bring more diversity into brewing.

This led us to talking about the closure of queer spaces, with the closure of the Black Cap, Madame JoJo’s and the George and Dragon to mention but a few.

  

So we ended up where we are today, with No Label - a beer with our name on it. A beer without anybody’s name on it. A beer, as it were, without a name.

All money from this venture is gong to charities - because one of the goals of Queerest of the Queer was that we give as much of any profit we can to charity. We didn’t make a profit from the festival in September- and this allowed us to do more than we could have done even if we had a capacity crowd.

Money is going to the Albert Kennedy Trust, Micro Rainbow who support LGBT asylum seekers, and we are working with Mosaic Youth and other youth charities to run a LGBTQ+ youth ball in the new year.

We haven’t put a label on what this relationship with BrewDog is – it would be counter-intuitive...

Facebook post - please read the comments.

Pink News.

Last September, BrewDog released a crowdfunding video that showed founders James Watt and Martin Dickie sending up how desperate they were for money by dressing in bad drag and trying to sell their bodies in a brothel window, under the hashtag #dontmakeusdothis.

This was greeted with a (slightly OTT) online petition and a call for a boycott until the 'transphobic' online ad was withdrawn.

BrewDog beer company claims to be "beer for punks". They claim to be ethical. Yet in their new crowdsourcing video they mock homeless people, trans women and sex workers. They say, "don't make us do this" whilst performing as offensive caricatures of people, many of whom already suffer discrimination every day. They are mocking the lives and experiences of people who real punks would be defending and helping.

Worse, this is a fundraising video - they're using these images in an exploitative manner to make money.

In February 2014, BrewDog came up with this wanky PR stunt to jump on the hysterical Sochi bandwagon; ‘Hello My Name is Vladimir’ has been launched as the world’s first protest beer, aimed to mock and criticise Russia’s anti-gay “propaganda” laws.

Take that Putin!

Full disclosure: Fagburn completely missed this one, I ignore a lot of these tedious pink PR exercises as I don't like giving them the oxygen of publicity.

I had no idea how farcical this one was - thanks to @How_Upsetting for joining the dots. x

See also Why Drinking 'Transgender Beer' Won't Help The LGBT Community, Anthony Lorenzo, Vice.

PS Should point out that Fagburn does not think the BrewDog dudes are devils, and probably had good intentions.

Look at this for an example of classic bourgeois LGBTIQWXYZ victimhood!

Sorry?

Where was the 'HARM DONE'! by their crappy ad?

Sake.