A BREWERY says it never intended to offend anyone after it was criticised by the head of a Hindu religious group for naming one of its new beers “Ganesh”.

Wishbone Brewery, off Dalton Lane, Keighley, collaborated with a Manchester-based brewery earlier this summer to make the special, one-off tipple for a beer festival in Manchester.

But the name of the 4.5 per cent drink has not gone down well with Rajan Zed, the Nevada-based president of Universal Society of Hinduism.

Mr Zed called on Wishbone Brewery to withdraw the beer and apologise, saying naming it after this Hindu god was “highly inappropriate”.

He added: “Usage of Hindu deities, concepts or symbols for commercial or other agendas is not okay as it hurts the devotees.

“Lord Ganesh is highly revered in Hinduism and is meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be used in selling beer for mercantile greed. Moreover, linking Lord Ganesh with an alcoholic beverage is very disrespectful when he’s seen to be in the company of other beers named “Rascal”, “Bandit”, etc.

“Hinduism is the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about 1.1 billion adherents and it should not be taken frivolously."

Adrian Chapman, one of Wishbone Brewery’s founders, said: “We brewed this beer in Keighley. Among its ingredients are coriander and lime and it’s a light, refreshing, fruity edged beer. We were tossing around ideas for a name, with one idea that was turned down being ‘Indian Summer’.

“The name we came up with in the end was ‘Ganesh’ and it was something we did in all innocence.

“The most important thing for us is how the beer tastes, with the name being secondary.

“The only criteria we have for a name is that it isn’t the same as what some other brewery has already used for their beer.

“We’re completely open to changing the name of the beer, as it was never our intention to offend anybody, though as this was a beer we’d made a couple of months ago for this particular festival there’s an 80 per cent chance we won’t be making it again anyway.

“We’d never knowingly pick a name that could hurt anyone. For example, we’re not the kind of brewery that would put a picture of a busty blonde women on a pump clip along with a lewd name. That’s just not us.”

Mr Chapman said shortly after the beer reached the festival in Manchester he was informed on social media that naming it Ganesh could constitute “cultural appropriation”.

He said he had quickly responded to this by canvassing people’s views on the brewery’s Twitter page. He added: “If Mr Zed fancies giving us a phone call I’d gladly speak to him, I’m sure he’s a lovely bloke.”