An Ohio grocery chain has pulled a popular beer from its shelves because of its controversial name.
Sweet Baby Jesus! is a chocolate and peanut butter porter by the Baltimore-based DuClaw Brewing Co. According to Fox News, Heinen’s, a grocery store chain based in Cleveland, recently decided to stop selling the beer after customers complained that the name was "offensive."
Heinen’s began selling the porter two months ago. The chain has 22 outlets in Ohio and Illinois.
“When you push boundaries and try to get one group excited about it, inevitably people are going to get upset on one side or the other,” Duclaw founder Dave Benfield told the Baltimore Business Journal. “[The name’s] not meant to be offensive, it’s not meant to be derogatory… “We liked the phrase [Sweet Baby Jesus!], which at least to us, is a phrase of excitement or astonishment.”
Benfield said this is the first time the beer has been pulled from a chain of stores. Complaints about the name, however, are not new.
Benfield told the Baltimore Sun the peanut butter porter has been removed from military bases in the past. But he noted that the beer often ends up being restocked after a few weeks.
"There's a lot more people who are upset they can't get it," Benfield said.
Sweet Baby Jesus! beer can still be found in several stores in Ohio. According to the Sun, DuClaw beer is currently distributed in eight states, mostly in the Mid-Atlantic.
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