Earlier this week, Reckless Brewing owner Dave Hyndman composed a post (included at the bottom) on his company’s Facebook page promoting the renaming of his black lager to Black Lagers Matter. That post leaned on a series of African-American stereotypes, racist themes and even riffed off Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “I have a dream” speech. That post instantly took on a life of its own on social media, being reposted and discussed via numerous online forums. While some fans of the business attempted to defend Hyndman as a non-conformist known for his against-the-grain humor, the vast majority of people commenting on the post felt it was racist or, at best, ill-conceived and in poor taste. Hyndman’s follow-up posts consisted of multiple, defensive apologies that failed to move the needle of public opinion.

Three days of virality and volatility led Hyndman to post the following on Reckless Brewing’s Facebook page earlier today:

I’ve decide that I will close reckless brewing. So, those that wanted that, you have accomplished your objective.

I just want to repeat how sorry I am for any and all the hurt I caused with my insensitive post. It was a terrible mistake. I’ve certainly learned some things from this. But for those that have been hating me for this terrible lack of understanding, if you are interested in knowing the actual human being that you have been hating, i invite you to come and talk to me face to face as two human beings. I am flawed, no doubt, for I am just a man, but i invite you to talk to me and look into my face as a fellow human being and see if you still think i am such an evil person. This has nothing to do with damage control because the damage is done and the business is closing, but maybe some people can see that you cannot know a person from one lack of judgment.