This might have been more fun the first time than the second, but that won’t keep me from asking again. (However, I do promise not to roll out a quiz on St. Patrick’s Day, the next official beer drinking holiday.)
The goal is to identify the outlier and explain why it doesn’t belong on the list. There may be more than one answer, although I happen to have a specific one in mind.
a) Rogue Chocolate Stout
b) Foothills Brewing Sexual Chocolate
c) Meantime Brewing Chocolate
d) Dieu Du Ciel Aphrodisiaque
e) Boulevard Smokestack Chocolate Ale
e) Boulevard Smokestack Chocolate Ale:
This is the only beer of the 5 that is a collaborative brew with Christopher Elbow a kansas city Chocolatier…
Smokestack is also not a stout.
Dieu Du Ciel Aphrodisiaque can’t be called that in Ontario while all others can use their real name?
http://www.lcbo.com/lcbo-ear/lcbo/product/details.do?language=EN&itemNumber=180034
Dave – Meantime’s is a porter.
Gee, Alan, way to spoil all the fun.
At least you could have pointed to this this photo, which indicates that not only was the name changed but cleavage was airbrushed for Ontarians.
Okay, Alan’s home-country advantage gave him the edge here, but I DID notice that only one of these beers was Canadian.
Oh. My. God. I had no idea.
Like Ontarians would sit around and gawk at the cleavage. Your tax dollars in action.
Sexual Chocolate is the only beer relying on a racist subtext of black sexual excess to sell their beer? Although to perfectly fair, the misogyny of today’s winner is hardly better.
“Sexual Chocolate is the only beer relying on a racist subtext of black sexual excess to sell their beer?”
I find it funny that I never looked at it in that light. Could it be reaching on your part (or missed facetiousness on mine)?
Of course, Brown Shugga’ doesn’t fly under anyone’s radar.
If we had just the name as a homage to the fictional band in Coming to America, I might be inclined to agree. But the name is splayed across the image of a black woman, clearly identifying the referent the company wants us to connect to the name. I’d have to call that a little too literal for my tastes. At least Lagunitas has the “good taste” to not include images that would further shade the implied meaning of the name.
“If we had just the name as a homage…”
Ahh, therein lies the disconnect: Never saw the movie (never been a big Eddie Murphy fan), and never looked for the beer. I’d be inclined to agree with the assessment based on the blatant graphics, then again — there are always 2 sides to a story. Who knows why the brewery decided to take that road?
Now, I suppose, we ought to take Flying Dog to task — once received a free T-shirt from them that I knew I’d never wear…
Steve: while I appreciate your amenable attitude, I’m less inclined to take the “2 sides to a story” approach. Both Sexual Chocolate and the Flying Dog beer you refer to represent a problem that exists in beer advertising. That problem is that racism and misogyny are acceptable advertising practices. While it is of course not a problem exclusive to the beer industry, since we (or at least I) am here via my interest in beer, I want to divest and separate my interest in beer with the problems connected to the manner in which beers are publicly advertised. And beers that employ this terminology and/or iconography should be called out, whether we as consumers are consciously or unconsciously aware of the ways in which those products are being advertized. To pretend these problems don’t exist, or to pretend that these problems are somehow acceptable only further trivializes the problem. And if that is the case, we might just as well bring back Crazy Horse Malt Liquor.
“I’m less inclined to take the “2 sides to a story” approach.”
Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t saying that it was right, just that the intentions may have not been as clear cut as we all might think.
I certainly agree that trivialization is not right — on the other hand, I don’t like to be quick to jump to conclusion without all the facts.
I’m less interested in intentions. The path to hell is paved with good intentions. Or, put another way, most people don’t intend to perform racist or sexist acts, but since we’ve all been raised in a world that is itself racist and sexist, these actions occur, whether intended or not. How do you create greater awareness of the oftentimes unconscious biases that are presented as cute to some but offensive to others? You point them out. Regardless of the intentions of Foothills Brewing or Flying Dog, they need to be called out for the perception and/or reception of their actions.
“…they need to be called out for the perception and/or reception of their actions.”
I’ll stand beside the madding crowd for that, but don’t ask me to be a part of any neck tie party.
We’re all good then.