Tiny Rebel? Not any more thanks

Tiny Rebel Sexism: It feels like we have made great headway tackling misogyny, sexism and general discrimination within the beer and pub industry as a whole in recent years. But then a high profile example jumps out from behind the sofa and makes you feel like we’re going nowhere fast. When I wrote about the Great British Beer Festival’s theme of diversity in 2019 what I hadn’t realised was that the big story in the press that day was the banning of discriminatory beer names from CAMRA festivals. This move was aimed particularly at encouraging more female drinkers back to the cask ale fold.

Beer Twitter

I was disappointed to see that Tiny Rebel were getting on the wick of Twitter again today, two years on from CAMRAs ban on sexist product names. This time it was crass menu names on their Newport bar’s menu. Thanks to FermentTheRich for highlighting:

Seriously, @tinyrebelbrewco calling two of your burgers ‘The B-J’ and ‘The Motorboat’… this is so far beyond crass. What kind of childish, ladbible circa 2012 humour is this? It’s not funny, it’s not clever. Grow the fuck up. pic.twitter.com/Jg99TWFfyc

— mf doombar (@FermentTheRich) January 8, 2021

The B-J burger. Urgh. Imagine working at that pub and having every self-indulgent “comedian” of a customer asking if you can give them a BJ, hurr hurr hurr. Absolutely tiresome. It’s lazy and boring misogyny and I’m annoyed that I have to even think about it.

Being a snowflake?

“Why am I so bothered about it?”, I imagine I will hear lots of people on Twitter cry. Why do I not just dry my little snowflake tears and move on? The answer is that I really like Tiny Rebel’s beer and now I’m not going to drink it any more. That makes me a bit sad and a bit pissed off because it was really easy to avoid. Anyone that knows me will know of my intense love of Stay Puft. But this is crunch time for UK hospitality, and there are lots of other breweries out there that I can give my money to now rather than supporting TR and their dull sexism played for cheap laughs. That’s not rebellion, it’s school children twanging bra straps for kicks.

TR are on their final strike for me. We had their Estate Gardener advert in November telling us “you can’t beat a good trimmed bush, and we’ve got a lot of bushes that need trimming.” Yawn. Again, it’s not the end of the world, but it is pervasive bad humour. Look back a couple of years to their Peaches & Cream branding too and I just feel like rolling my eyes isn’t enough any more.

Literally the only bit of brewery branding I have on my person on a regular basis is a TR badge on my handbag. My Tiny Rebel badge is in the bin, and so now I’m looking for new breweries that deserve my patronage instead. Stick your recommendations in the comments below.