Garage Project Kills Off Popular Beer With Offending Label

Garage Project, considered by many to be the best brewery in New Zealand, has pulled the plug on a popular beer, after receiving a letter from a Australian woman of Vietnamese descent who was troubled by its name and imagery…

Death From Above is (was?) Garage Project’s American-style pale ale infused with southeastern Asian flavors of mango, lime, and Vietnamese mint, which according to Stuff is sold around the world and has a cult following especially in Norway and Sweden.

The beer’s name came from an US Army Airborne Division motto used in Apocalypse Now’s famous Ride of the Valkyries helicopter attack scene and that movie’s imagery clearly informs Death From Above’s label.

In a Facebook post, Garage Project’s Head Brewer and co-Founder Pete Gillespie expressed his position this way…

“It upsets me deeply to think that anyone would think of the Garage as being racist, or as glorifying acts of violence which wrought only misery and destruction on a country. For the record, racism sucks and violence, on the whole, is a shit way of solving international disputes. For this reason I will not be brewing this beer again under this name….For those who I have offended, please accept my genuine apology.”

Gillespie added that he remains open to eventually bringing the beer back under a different name…”but not in the near future.”