Dystopian State Brewing Faces Public Relations Nightmare

Updated 02/25/22019

We wanted our readers to know what we about Shane McElwrath and Lana Adzhigirey the owners of Dystopian State Brewing. They and their organization have made an admirable effort to correct, as much as is humanly possible, for the unfortunate incident that occurred last year.

As we at American Craft Beer understand better than most, everybody makes mistakes, and Dystopian State Brewing remains committed to making amends…including their continuing community outreach and economic support the LGBTQ community in their area… 

 

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Over the past 72 hours, Dystopian State a popular Tacoma, Washington brewery has been reeling from online backlash over how its owners handled criticism from a patron…and there are lessons to be learned.

In a Facebook post for local beer lovers, a patron described Dystopian State as the “only place I have spit beer back into a glass.”

That comment apparently didn’t sit well with owner and head brewer Shane McElwrath, who according to Seattle Magazine, “privately messaged the commenter back with this choice response…

“Spit that back into your boyfriends mouth you piece of shit.”

And as you can see in this screenshot that was first posted on Beer Street Journal things just got uglier from there…

 

And it’s not like McElwrath was alone in his response… Co-owner Lana Adzhigiery also jumped ugly via social media with her expletive-laden comment.

As you can imagine the backlash by the beer community was immediate and unforgiving…Their Facebook rating plummeted and BSJ reported that Untapped suspended their check-ins yesterday afternoon…

Dystopian State having come to their senses did post this apology on the Facebook page Monday night…

“We really screwed up. We lashed out to one of our customers who made a negative comment about our beer on a beer group on social media. We made it personal. And have sent him messages in very poor taste. This is unacceptable and it was wrong.

“This is unprofessional and we take full responsibility. Gus Erickson – thank you for giving us a chance and please accept our deepest apology for sending you hateful messages.

We would also like to reassure you that we accept people from all walks of life, any and all sexual orientation, color, gender, opinion.”

But to say that this thing should have never happened is an understatement…