Bad Ideas in Brewing – Cold Turkey Breakfast Beer

Hey, no one’s perfect, and we at American Craft Beer.com know that as much as anybody, having enthusiastically acted on more bad ideas than we care to think about…That said, there are some ideas out there that are so monumentally bad and so misguided as to boggle the mind, allowing us to declare that “at least we didn’t come up with that!” …So welcome to the latest in our ongoing series of Bad Ideas in Brewing – Cold Turkey Morning Beer.

A UK brewer has recently released a beer that’s stirring up all kinds of controversy in the Scottish highlands. Munlochy, Scotland-based Black Isle Brewery is brewing up a storm with the release of their Cold Turkey Breakfast Beer. The buzz is that the provocatively named low alcohol brew is in fact courting people who may be struggling with alcoholism.

Alistair Munro, reporting for the Scotsman.com, writes that the brewery owner, David Gladwin, is defending his 2.8% ABV “Cold Turkey” by saying that it was “”designed for people who appreciate what they are drinking” and that it was the “polar opposite” to the type of alcohol commonly associated with drinking problems, adding: “If, like me, you are up very early in the morning and you fancy a low alcohol beer with your eggs and ham, I don’t see a problem with that.”

We at American Craft Beer.com feel strongly that, even though we enjoy and celebrate drinking as well as the whole craft beer experience, we should never lose sight of the fact that alcohol is a drug. And like any other drug, for some it carries real dangers. We don’t know Mr. Gladwin, but we all know people who have struggled with alcoholism and whose lives have been devastated by it.

So no …we’re not cool with Black Isle Brewery cutely naming its brew Cold Turkey Breakfast Beer. Going “cold turkey” was a term coined by addicts who prayed for the strength to walk away from something that was killing them. And no, we are not cool with naming it a “breakfast beer” either. It speaks to the “hair of the dog” practice of warding off a devastating hangover by starting your morning with a drink – and that’s not a good place to be to begin with.

So in spite of Mr. Gladwin’s assertions that his beerwas brewed with a particular clientele in mind (he sites night-shift workers and fisherman) and that his good intentions are being misconstrued – we’re not buying it. We think the beer’s name says it all…and none of what it says is good. Cold Turkey Breakfast Beer was borne of a marketing strategy so misguided and so cynical as to defy belief – and for that reason alone will forever be enshrined as a truly Bad Idea in Brewing.