Blue Lightning Brew

That'll be fun to have another place to stop at when visiting Triple Horn and Dirty Bucket.

 

Initially, I'm stoked to have another, new brewery nearby, but their beer names have me rolling my eyes, and hopefully I'm just being an old fuddy duddy. Misogynistic beer name in "Horny Blond?" Check! Potentially LGBT-insensitive beer name in "Papa Gay Gay IPA?" Check! Maybe I'm missing something, like one of the brewers or owners is gay and proud, or part of the proceeds from that tap go to some better cause, but if not, that kind of frat boy bullshit got old at least two decades ago, and now only stands to give beer a bad name as well as insult people.

 

After your post I thought "maybe I'm missing something?" Maybe it's a reference I'm just not getting? But, no; if you Google "papa gay gay" you don't get a reference to, say, an obscure Calypso artist or something ... you get ads for "sugar daddy dating". So I'm with you. The names are not only bad, there's just no consistent identity between Blue Lightning and the beer names and the venue. Maybe they make decent to good beer, but the brand identity and voice is off.

 

I did the same, thinking there must be some meme or recent character I had no idea of. So, as did you, I Googled, too. Nothing.

 

Old thread I know.

Stopped by earlier this week. Wasn't sure if the theme was Caribbean pirates or sports bar/Seahawks. Beer names were also off-putting: Horny Blond, Papa Gay Gay, 3rd Base, etc.

 

So many beer forums and social media to pay attention to so sorry to be so late to the conversation; a friend just showed me this.

Just to be clear, non of our beer names are meant to be offensive anyone. There is usually a lighthearted story and meaning behind all our beer names. In fact most beers are named after friends. I'm not going to go into all the different names but the one that people "fuddy duddy" about is the Papa Gay Gay IPA.

Papa Gay Gay is a good friend of ours at Blue Lightning Brew. Before ever getting in to brewing or the adult beverage industry I use to go out a couple times a week meeting my friend Gaylen for IPA's around town. A few years later and got into brewing as a home brewer, Gaylen's son learned he was going to be a father and Gaylen a first time Grandfather. His kids and now Grand Children have affectionately nicknamed him Papa Gay Gay. As a tribute to a great man we created a great beer to honor our friend.

We encourage you to stop in for a pint and if you have questions on our names we are happy to tell you more about them.

Cheers!

 

Glad to read this. (Not to mention, you could have come in here and flamed off on some of us but did not.)

I hope all's well at BLB, and if I find myself out in Woodinville, I'll stop in for a pint.

Cheers!

 

Still not convinced..
http://www.bluelightningbrew.com/our-beer-and-wines.html


"Drunken Mic Irish brown ale"
Good luck dude i expect you will do well with the college types.
Me who knows many REAL Irish people..not so much
You wouldnt dare bout Firewater Drunk Indian Amber or the like..but its the same.

 

Oh.

 

I fully agree with this post. "Intent to offend" and "actually offensive" are very different. Doesn't really matter if you don't intend to offend while throwing around misogynistic and bigoted stereotypes. You may have a great story behind every beer name, but perception is what matters here, and many people are going to be offended before bothering to look into whatever backstory there may be.

 

I just want to hear the backstory of the horny blond.

 

It's a funny defense. "These are just lighthearted stories!" And yet all the lighthearted stories happen to target some minority, stereotype, etc. What a crazy coincidence. I'm not so much oversensitive to this ... I just find it tedious, poor branding, and devoid of any real respect for consumers. I'm not up in arms; I'm rolling my eyes. And the "I'm a good guy" defense is sort of weak when the outcome is "I'm just gonna keep doing what I'm doing."

See Half Acre's response to the "Heyoka" controversy for a much better example of addressing offense given.

 

No one can top these guys.

http://www.bigbeaverbrew.com/#!brews/c42f

 

Didnt say anything derogatory only that the poor girl was hot. and a good friend of Amber

 

THose guys have the mental age of 14. Would never ever purchase anything from them.

 

We'll run out of room on the internet if we start listing all the sexist or otherwise offensive / lame beer names and labels. If the idea is that this is a "they did it first" or "everybody else is doing it" defense then we might as well be back in middle school where that seemed like an airtight argument.