Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Boycott of Sam Adams has begun.[update: and can now end!]

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Boston Globe is reporting that the boycott of Sam Adams has begun because of their sponsorship of the exclusionary South Boston parade. The money quote is:

Therefore Club Cafe will no longer sell Sam Adams until such time as either the Parade organizers change their position, or Sam Adams removes its support of the St. Patrick Day Parade.

I applaud Frank Ribaudo, Jim Morgrage, and Club Cafe for taking this action and hope that others follow suit. I believe this is very much, in line, with the approach taken by several companies, including the NFL, over the Arizona “Gay Jim Crow” non-sense. Full Disclosure: I have known Frank for more than 20 years and have done freelance work for him in the past and worked with him via some benefit performances years ago back when I was a member of the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus.

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    • …their thinking is just getting their name out there (and I’ll leave aside my rant about the ubiquity of corporate sponsorship for now), and both of these will have large audiences.

      • Just an observation for crying out loud. IE doesn’t let me see who voted, but whoever it is have you just decided that all of my comments on this matter are downratable because of previous questions I have asked?

    • but they still showed that they could stand up to Arizona. Their sponsorship of the Pride parade does not give them a free pass here (Pun Intended).

  2. a few minutes ago, the support page was down and the generic message was all that was available:

    We’re updating our supporters, thank you for your patience.

    Perhaps, like Jan Brewer, they are beginning to feel pressure to veto their self-imposed bigotry. Perhaps?

      • Interesting! The main web page for SouthBostonParade.com used to show the Sam Adams logo.

        One of the benefits of being a sponsor is getting your name attached to an important community event. If that benefit turns into a liability, then there is no reason to be a sponsor.

  3. From The Boston Beer Co:
    As a local business, supporting our Boston community is important to us. The St. Patrick’s Day Parade is just one of the hundreds of events and organizations we support in and around Boston. We provide charitable donations to organizations in South Boston and around the city that address critical needs including supporting the arts, the environment, building communities, veterans initiatives, youth leadership development and addressing educational disparities, to name a few. We also provide support for a number of organizations whose primary focus is supporting civil rights, the LGBT community, marriage equality, and the Boston Pride Parade.

    We have deep roots in Boston and will continue to support local charities here and across the commonwealth, especially those charities that our employees and drinkers find meaningful and impactful. That said, our namesake, Samuel Adams, was a staunch defender of free speech and we support that ideal, so we take feedback seriously. The majority of our commitments are year-to-year, and we will continue to evaluate each organization and event before making additional contributions.

    Seems lacking, but it appears that they are opening the door to bowing out in the future.

    • While I don’t believe that Sam Adams is itself bigoted, I think they need to take a stance on this and absolutely declare that they will not sponsor any future events that blatantly discriminate against a minority group. Otherwise I expect this to happen again next year.

      In the meantime, there are plenty of other beers to drink….

      • If you don’t know the kind of stuff they fund, believe me, you don’t want to.

          • There are two mega-corporation beer companies: MillerCoors and AnheuserBush. Those two companies own 80% to 90% of all of the beer brands. Sam Adams is an exception, as an independent company.

            • Jack’s Abby is the only brand of beer I now carry in my refrigerator. Last night, at the Saint Patrick’s party, I did not buy Samuel Adams, but rather Harpoon Long Thaw draft to go with my shepherd’s pie. When I went to Hooters (#Orange), I did not buy Sam but rather a tall mug of Guiness stout. A safe way to boycott Sam is by dining at the (Lowell/Salem/Boston/Framingham/Hingham) Beer Works restaurant chain, which sells their own store brand of drafts and bottles.

              • Ipswish and Smuttynose are in most stores. Good point on Harpoon, they are on the waterfront and from what I can tell, they don’t seem to have a sponsorship problem.

                • Slumbrew which is brewed in Somerville, has a Portersquare Porter that is really good. I’ve even found it in Chicago. It’s just as Irish as a stout

                  “…Rolled him up in a nice clean sheet
                  and laid him out upon the bed
                  A bottle of whiskey at his feet
                  And a barrel of porter at his head”

                • last night. Slumbrew’s great. I gravitate toward IPAs myself (must be all those ancestors from port cities) and they have a couple of strong ones.

                • And there are so many great places that produce that style now. You couldn’t even find it 20 or 30 years ago. I’m a big Smuttynose, Harpoon, and Lagunitas fan myself. Revolution IPA by Revolution Brewery out in Chicago is also good. Had the Slumbrew sample at Cambridge Common (great beer bar), but could only find the Porter in Chicago. I emailed them about other styles getting carried but they might have to leave the market due to a distributor change. Hopefully they can keep expanding. And hopefully some of my favorite midwest brews can find their way out east (Great Lakes, Lakefront, Capital, Two Brothers, and Three Flloyds). But Boston is getting a great beer culture, even in the burbs.

                • We hit Cambridge Common about once a month. I’ve been a Harpoon guy for a long time. Lagunitas is in the fridge right now. Smuttynose too. In MA I also like Ipswich, Opa Opa from Southampton, Cisco, the newer Mayflower, High & Mighty in Holyoke, Newburyport Greenhead. I’m sure I’m forgetting someone. I also like Hill Farmstead from Vermont.

                • Anyone here sampled the elusive Heady Topper from Alchemist in Vermont? I had a friend who was up in VT last month try to find some for me (they do can it now) but to no avail. Rated very, very highly.

                • Spell check warned me underlining Guiness in red, but I never buy Guinness from the package store and take it home, so I could not get the spelling right. I apologize. I still have cans of Newburyport in my trunk, so I will merely keep in mind to maybe buy Smuttynose in one my town’s more than ten packstage stores (We are not First Lady Bush’s Midland, Texas). I have never seen Smuttynose on tap. Ipswich Ich bought in The Landing restaurant in Marblehead right on Philip T. Clark landing.

                • Last time I was up that ways paired some local IPAs with local clams. God to I miss a New England summer (keep your fingers crossed folks-two great opportunities could have me back by June, and PM me anything you find in progressive policy circles I cant take the midwest anymore!)

                • There is an old quote about life being too short to drink crappy beer…

                  Brewers of recent inhabitants in my fridge:

                  – Banner (Williamsburg)
                  – Brooklyn (obvious…)
                  – Cisco (Nantucket)
                  – Notch (contract brews in Ipswitch, specializes in lower alcohol offerings)
                  – Slumbrew (previously mentioned)
                  – Pretty Things (Westport)

                • New England has, in addition to all the fine brews mentioned, Kennebunkport and Sebago out of Maine (my brother got me a great case of Sebago with two glasses for Christmas, great gift and thoroughly enjoyed). Berkshire Brewing had some great stuff I tried at Mead Hall in Cambridge, and I’m really pumped for St. Joseph’s Abby (where granma got her marmelade for years) is becoming the first certified true Trappist Ale producer in North America.

                  And if anybody is in Chicago you got a great beer bar The Map Room, Revolution Brewery, Goose Island, Half Acre, Argus, Windy City, and all the Wisconsin guys (Lakefront, New Glarus and Capital are amazing) too.

                  Even DC has a brewery and it’s quite good.

                  Sam’s is also getting eclipsed by other national micro brews like Lagunitas, Sierra Nevada, New Belgium and Dogfish. You can get those on tap just about anywhere, even suburban and exurban bars I’ve been to out here.

            • Yes, I know that those companies make large quantities of beer-like liquid. I never drink that stuff.

              For the record, I really like Sam Adams, both the product and the company. I know there was nothing mean spirited in their sponsorship of the parade, but for me it is time to stop looking the other way on this issue.

        • It appears I started a tangent about the merits of various beers, which is ironic considering I don’t drink.

          • As the diarist, I find this tangent curious and you should definitely keep it going. I avoid Coors like the plague, but I mostly agree with the “Why is American Beer like having Sex in a Canoe?” joke, so I am limited in my ability to discuss beer at any length.

            • My Bavarian wife (of Austrian descent) says that “American beer” is an oxymoron. She cites, among other complaints, the pasteurization of all but “craft” beers in the US. Sam Adams, from a keg, is apparently NOT pasteurized (to its credit). Virtually all imported commercial beer apparently must be pasteurized, limiting the availability of labels she knows.

              There are some American brews that she (and we) drink from time to time, especially during hot weather.

              We also distinguish “beer” from “lawn-mower swill”. The canonical lawn-mower swill is PBR from a can — a “beer” in name only, but still very refreshing on a hot summer afternoon.

              In her view, calling anything made from rice (you know the brands I’m talking about) “beer” is just more US commercial fraud. đŸ™‚

              Whatever it is we call it, the refreshment that I enjoyed for several hours at the cafe on the old town square of Innsbruck several years ago is, to my knowledge, simply not available here.

              My libations are generally limited to wine and scotch, though I do enjoy lawn-mower swill in season.

              • to Bronwyn in Union Square yet? I hear they have real German beers there and I’ve been meaning to give it a try.

                • I have inside info about that. TW Food, in Cambridge, is better.

                  German beer MUST be pasteurized to be imported (or exported, I’m not sure which).

                • So only a US-made craft beer would not be pasteurized? Anyone here brewing a beer similar to those in Germany?

                • TW Food and Bronwyn share the same owners, Tim and Bronwyn Wiechmann. “TW Food” aims for a very upscale fine-dining experience. Bronwyn aims to be an old-fashioned “Biergarten”. Early reports from inside the restaurant business suggest the former achieves its goal more successfully than the latter.

  6. Posted by MassEquality:

    Boston Beer Company, Sam Adams Cancel Participation in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade
    Published Mar 14, 2014

    For questions regarding this statement, please contact:

    Boston Beer Company
    Jessica Paar: jessica.paar@bostonbeer.com | w: 617.368.5060

    Statement from the Boston Beer Company:

    “We have been participating in the South Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade for nearly a decade and have also supported the St. Patrick’s Day breakfast year after year. We’ve done so because of the rich history of the event and to support veterans who have done so much for this country.

    We were hopeful that both sides of this issue would be able to come to an agreement that would allow everyone, regardless of orientation, to participate in the parade. But given the current status of the negotiations, we realize this may not be possible.

    We share these sentiments with Mayor Walsh, Congressman Lynch and others and therefore we will not participate in this year’s parade. We will continue to support Senator Linda Dorcena Forry and her St. Patrick’s Day breakfast. We wish her all the best in her historic stewardship of this tradition.”

  7. I congratulate both the organizers of the boycott and the Boston Beer Company for doing the right thing and for doing so in an appropriate timeframe.

    Perhaps this is a good to aim the laser at NECN.

  9. An edit of the headline would probably be a good thing now that a resolution has been reached.

  10. The Boston Beer Company deserves a lot of credit and this will make a difference.

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