It’s getting increasingly difficult for breweries around the world to name their beers without getting into trouble with someone, somewhere. Especially beers that reference Hindu deities…

Just last week we reported  on two Buffalo, NY breweries forced to pull their collaboration Aqua Shiva IPA after the Hindu community protested its name. And now a Ukrainian craft brewery is in hot water…

At issue this time around is a beer produced by the Ukraine’s Reformation Brewery and the beer’s name is hardly neutral, whether you subscribe to the Hindu faith, or not.

Kali F*ckin IPA is described by Reformation Brewery, which is based in an eastern suburb of Kiev, as “an American-style IPA with a bright aroma of tropical fruits, grapefruit and lime. It will satisfy the most demanding hopheads and will not leave anyone indifferent”

In a statement, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed demanded that the brewery apologize and that the beer be withdrawn, saying that “inappropriate usage of sacred Hindu symbols or deities or concepts or icons for commercial or other agenda was not okay”…

“Goddess Kali, who personifies Sakti or divine energy, is widely worshipped in Hinduism. Breweries should not be in the business of religious appropriation, sacrilege, and ridiculing entire communities.”

Zed, the conservative leader of the Reno, Nevada-based Universal Society of Hinduism, has led several efforts over the years aimed at breweries and beers that he felt were offensively named.

In 2014 he took on Odd 13 Brewing over the Lafayette, Colorado-based brewery naming an Imperial IPA after the Hindu God Hanuman. In 2018 a Salem, VA brewery, Olde Salem Brewing incurred Zed’s wrath after it also named a beer after the Hindu Deity. (Note to breweries: Don’t even think about naming your beer Hanuman)

And in 2019 Zed criticized Walhalla Craft Beer, a small brewery based in in the Netherlands for its Shakti Double IPA arguing that Shakti (a general term for the Goddess) is highly venerated in Hinduism and not meant to be used in selling beer.

“Hinduism was the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about 1.1 billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought and it should not be taken frivolously,” Zed shared with American Craft Beer. “Symbols of any faith, larger or smaller, should not be mishandled.”