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Would You Go Gay For Gay Beer?
By
Ben Yakas
Published Mar 3, 2011
Modified Mar 4, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Mar 3, 2011
Modified Mar 4, 2011
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We've come across some pretty, pretty wacky ideas on beer in our time—ice in beer? c'mon—but a new brew from Mexico is definitely stretching the bounds of marketing and taste. The Minerva brewery has come out with a specific line of beers for gay people, Purple Hand and Salamandra. Or as the News so jubilantly dubs it, "Queer Beer."
"We're out in the market with great respect with the idea of offering a product directed to the gay-lesbian community that has been ignored for too long but is important and very demanding," said Dario Rodriguez Wyler, manager for distributors Bodega 12. The beers are brewed with 100 percent organic honey and malt, with a recipe that "infuses the beer with a citrus flavor that appeals to the taste of the LGBT community," according to Wyler. Purple Hand was named in honor of the 1969 gay rights protest in San Francisco.
According to the UK Independent, the labels have been designed to be peeled off and worn as badges of gay pride. It's currently only being sold in Mexico, but Minerva has reportedly received purchase requests from the U.S., Argentina, Ecuador, Japan and Chile, so it's only a matter of time before it gets here. But is gay beer offensive?
We think it's a little funky that the company presumes that gay people need/desire a citrus flavor to get their beer down. Does lime not count then?—there are already tons of major beers marketed with lime. Is the old cliche that gay people don't drink beer even applicable in this day and age? By that logic, if the company really wanted to appeal to gay people, shouldn't they have made their product a vodka-soda (with no calories)?
As for the myth that gay people don't drink beer, check out this "news report" below on the new beers. The british accent of the "reporter" threw us off at first, but we're pretty confident that any story which suggests that gay people have been "unofficially allowed to drink beer" for years, and argues that the gay beer helps people "express their sexuality through lager," was made for LOLing:
Gay beer shocks the world
Uploaded by itnquirky. - Up-to-the minute news videos.
While you contemplate whether you're offended by the concept of "queer beer," or if you'd gleefully try it when it eventually arrives in NYC, you can check out their "official" commercial below:
Tagged
alcohol
beer
gay beer
mexico
minerva brewery
purple hand
queer beer
salamandra
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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