Manhattan Project faces backlash over nuclear weapons-themed beers

In October 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis we were regularly trained to dive beneath our desks and cover our heads. Rumor had it that Greensboro was something of a target due to the massive gasoline tank farms holding fuel refined in the Gulf states and piped northward. It's still all very active out by the airport.

 

I'm on the fence as to whether the Manhattan Project owners are attempting to gain recognition by stirring up pot or did they not give the possibility of upsetting anyone enough thought.

Co-founder Karl Sander's inability to answer question about the origin of their chosen names (not knowing what Bikini Atoll is or who Oppenheimer was) leads me to believe that they landed on these names without any research or foresight.

They should discontinue Bikini Atoll out respect to all the people living there or nearby, specially all the ones effected by the years of nuclear testing. The fact that they are “standing pat” on their naming choices shows me that the just don’t give a _____.

And why are they using the name Black Matter for their Stout, come on, that’s pushing it.
If anyone with knowledge of astrophysics would like to chime in here, I believe it’s called Dark Matter!

 

It seems to me they thought it was clever and didn't think it through very well, or research it well.

 

I mean... they're using it as a marketing tool for their fucking craft beer brand. I don't know how you can show less respect for history than that.

This shit is obviously in poor taste. I don't know how anyone could have thought it was a good idea.

 

I don't see the name Bikini Atoll as a form of mocking, I believe it's in poor taste.

The name Black Matter, I believe, is clearly mocking the Black Lives Matter movement.

Again, unless someone with a physics background begs to differ with me, Dark(Black) Matter has nothing to do with nuclear fission.

 

It's a Unesco World Heritage site: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1339

No reason a beer can't be named after it....

 

REEEEEEEE.

Nah just kidding. Sounds tasty.

 

Ok, but why didn't they just go with Dark Matter, it's by far the more common naming convention.

 

I sold Black Boss Porter from Poland years ago. I always thought someone somewhere might say something about the name, but no one ever did. I don't know what Black Boss means, but it may have something to do with the high ABV in a tasty dark brew.

 

The breweries name is BOSS Browar, and that does look like an excellent Baltic Porter.

 

Spelling sites sights pisses me off!

 

I've visited the museum at Los Alamos, and have read about the development of the bomb. No bombs were tested at Los Alamos, but the first was at Trinity site, now part of the White Sands Missile range. You may mean the testing that supported the arsenal development.

Most tests were at the Nevada test site, not all that far from Las Vegas. In Utah the locals had a term for it, they were downwinders. Hell, the whole eastern part of the country was downwind. The closer you were to the Nevada test site, the higher the dose.

 

Yes, memory fault. My bad to conflate the two. Thanks for taking the time to do that correction.

I spent some time in Southern Utah which used to be my home state.

 

I have a personal rule: I never read political threads on BA. I violated that policy. I won't do it again. Anyway, here goes.

Thanks. That makes sense. I appreciate the answer.

Ok, that's an answer. Thank you. Although your answer was weirdly judgemental especially since I gave no opinion and made no "objection" - I simply asked a question. Those beers have been around a while, and I've never seen letters complaining about them or seen threads on this site. I was simply making an observation and asking a question. You assumed my position based on the question, but I never gave it. And I won't ever give my opinion on something political on this site. I find it pointless.

Thanks. That also makes sense. I also appreciate your answer.

And, now, I'm out - never to return to this thread.

 

No way, this shit is addictive....

 

For your reading pleasure. The St. George area was an area with a hit fallout dose.

https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/nevada-test-site-downwinders

I've spent a fair amount of time poking around the Colorado Plateau. The Uranium for the early bombs came from there.

 

OK, I could see the sides of the potentially offended on the sexist and racially insensitive labels/actions that had threads but this one is a bit of a stretch, to me anyway.

Labels that some could find bothersome, sure.

Not sure how that differs from so many others that are more obvious. As said before, there are many many more beer and food references to Chernobyl which on the scale of things DWARFS Bikini Atoll. The list is long and doesn't make it right but folks seem to be looking for reasons to be offended.

As a person who rode around and drove a boat with let's say the equivalent of about 2/3 of the equivalent of everything dropped in WWII on it, I have healthy respect for this, get it and make no light of it but it's history to me.