Witches Say Beer’s O.K., but Lose the Fire and Stake

[n2doc]

By MARK OPPENHEIMER
Published: October 22, 2010

She was not looking for controversy. Vicki Noble was just looking for a fine ale.

Ms. Noble, who is famous in the pagan and Wiccan communities for her astrology readings, shamanic healing and writings about goddess spirituality, says she discovered Witch’s Wit last week on one of her regular excursions to 41st Avenue Liquors, in Capitola, Calif.

“I like beer,” Ms. Noble said, and as a practitioner of religious traditions that revere the earth and women’s special powers, she also feels a special connection to brewing. “It was the women who brewed beer from ancient times right up to the Reformation,” she says. She thinks some were burned as witches to destroy “the ancient traditions of shamanistic medicine, which in every indigenous culture includes the brewing of medicinal fermented beverages.”

But one does not have to agree with Ms. Noble’s interpretation of history to share her offense at a picture on the label of Witch’s Wit, a limited-edition pale ale — “wit” means “white” in Dutch — produced by Lost Abbey, a division of the Port Brewing Company of San Marcos, Calif.

It was a painting of a witch being burned at the stake.



more

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/23/us/23witch.html?_r=1&ref=us

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

1. One must ask...

Do they make it by squeezing wooden ducks?

or does it weigh as much as a duck?
or sold by the duckload? (ok, that one is really stupid:P )

[ensho]

2. may they never sell another bottle

nt

[MilesColtrane]

3. I can see her point.

There's a reason a company wouldn't make a Buchenwald Bitter, a Rwanda Red Ale, or a Wounded Knee Weizenbier.

[KatyMan]

4. Nevermind

...misinterpretation...

[backscatter712]

5. Looks like this one's gonna have a happy ending.

The brewery's going to change the label - they didn't appear to be deliberately going out of their way to offend people, and when they learned about the protests from Wiccan groups, they agreed to change it.

[ensho]

6. good, the company is being sensible

nt

[Robyn66]

7. How amazing

They didn't realize that a picture of a woman being burned alive would be offensive. It should be offensive to EVERYONE!