Reckless Brewing’s Dave Hyndman in happier days: Facebook

There may be a reason that Dave Hyndman, the owner of Reckless Brewing, chose “reckless” as the name of his brewery and now a racially tone-deaf post has led to a social media firestorm and that brewery’s closure in San Diego.

Hers’s the deal…

Last Tuesday Dave Hyndman took to the brewery’s Facebook page and published a post that promoted his changing the name of a black lager from “Black Sultry” which could be seen as problematic by some, to “Black Lagers Matter” which definitely touched a nerve.

The post, which has since then been removed, “leaned on a series of African-American stereotypes, racist themes and even riffed off Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous I Have a Dream speech,” according to the West Coaster, and the backlash was immediate.

Reddit went crazy, calling attention to the brewery’s history of “reckless” beer names…

This from KallistiEngel…

From a quick scroll through their beers on Untappd, and knowing nothing of their labeling or circumstances surrounding them, aside from puns these seem to be the categories of beer name they’ve chosen:

“Edgy” names: Genocide, Crazy Stupid Bitch, Oral Pleasure, Pop My Cherry, and Adam and Steve’s Friend of Dorothy Fruity Super Gay Beer

Potential “Cease and Desist” fodder: The Dude Abides, Braveheart, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, and Stay Classy, San Diego

Memes/superficially topical: Honey Badger Don’t Care, Hard Pour Corn, Soft Pour Corn, Covfefe, and Space Force

In an effort to stem the growing outrage Hyndman returned to the brewery’s Facebook page on March 6 and posted an apology of sorts, acknowledging at that time that “there is probably no coming back from this.”

And 18 hours later he announced Reckless Brewing’s closure.

I’ve decide that I will close reckless brewing. So, those that wanted that, you have accomplished your objective.

I just want to repeat how sorry I am for any and all the hurt I caused with my insensitive post. It was a terrible mistake. I’ve certainly learned some things from this.

But for those that have been hating me for this terrible lack of understanding, if you are interested in knowing the actual human being that you have been hating, I invite you to come and talk to me face to face as two human beings.

I am flawed, no doubt, for I am just a man, but I invite you to talk to me and look into my face as a fellow human being and see if you still think I am such an evil person.

This has nothing to do with damage control because the damage is done and the business is closing, but maybe some people can see that you cannot know a person from one lack of judgment… [/box]