“Mouth Raper,” a Horrible Idea for a Beer Name

And you thought “Double D Blond” was eyeroll-worthy. Hop Valley got some bad press when Rebecca Rose of Jezebel wrote about a post from Beervana‘s Jeff Alworth that claimed the real name of Hop Valley’s “Mr. IPA” is “Mouth Raper.” Alworth cited an alias page from ratebeer.com as proof, and a commenter added that she’d looked up the brew on Untapped after seeing it on Twitter as “Mouth Raper,” and all the reviews there listed that as its name.

Hop Valley says it’s just “Mr. IPA.” The brewery posted a response on Facebook:

We have a series of draft beers named Mr. Orange, Mr. Black and Mr. IPA. It has come to our attention that an urban myth and street name has emerged surrounding Mr. IPA. We take this very seriously and are sensitive to these issues. Accordingly, we have pulled the product and are instructing our distributors to replace any remaining kegs with other offerings. We apologize for any harm or misunderstandings this has created.

Commenter Dana Garves replied to Hop Valley’s post, accusing the brewery of lying rather than admitting its mistake. The comments were later taken down, and Garves says she did not delete them herself. A couple of other comments skeptical of the apology are still up as of 1:30 pm Friday, Jan. 17. Here’s what Garves originally posted:

Maybe Hop Valley can brew some special batches named for feminist superheroes or something? I’d buy that, even if it was an IPA.

PS: Anyone making the argument that the name was “just a joke” should read Lindy West on how to make a rape joke and Patton Oswalt’s excellent essay about rape culture and rape jokes.

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