Call To Arms Brewing cuts Putin from flagship beers
Putin is done at Call To Arms Brewing in Denver, Colorado. Effective immediately, Vladimir’s image and name have been removed from the brewery’s flagship beer Shirtless Putin Catching Rays Dark Czech Lager, as well as any other beer names in the series.
The “Shirtless Putin” series debuted in 2016, when the internet was full of bizarre shirtless pictures of Putin, either on horseback or swimming in an icy lake.
It was funny until Putin started killing Ukrainians.
“The series’ original intent was to serve as a pointed criticism of Russian propaganda…The brewery does not want the name to be misconstrued in any way as supporting the Russian president or his actions,” says Call to Arms founder Chris Bell.
The series began with Catching Rays and Shirtless Putin Nuzzling with Dolphins Baltic Porter and grew to include Shirtless Putin on Horseback. All three beers will be renamed going forward.
“While we often like to poke fun at ourselves, timely events, and cultural moments as a whole, at the core of Call to Arms, we stand behind human decency and condemn the action of Russia’s escalating aggression against Ukraine As a result, we no longer feel it is appropriate to reference Putin on our beers regardless of the original intent of the series.” – Chris Bell
A new name for the series has not been announced. In the meantime, Call to Arms has partnered with their Two Six Craft Beer Distributors to donate $1 of every Dark Czech Lager six-pack sold to UNICEF’s children of Ukraine Fund until all the inventory bearing the current imagery is gone.
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