Name Change at Yankee Stadium a Win for True Craft Beer

April 16, 2013

“The people have spoken. Change has been made…”

Those were the words of Stone Brewing Co.’s CEO and founder, Greg Koch after reading the Deadspin article “Yankee Stadium Has Renamed Its Craft Beer Stand That Doesn’t Have Any Craft Beer” which announced that the stadium had changed the name of one of its beer stands following outrage from craft beer and ball fans.

The topic even caught the eye of NPR writer, Bill Chappell, who titled his post on the subject, “Beer Bust: Yankees Rename ‘Craft Beer’ Stand At Stadium.”

You might have caught wind of the controversy on Major League Baseball’s Opening Day when Deadspin published “Everything Sold At The Yankees’ New ‘Craft Beer’ Stand Is Owned By MillerCoors, And Half Of Them Aren’t Actually Beers” calling out the stadium for naming the stand “Craft Beer Destination.” The inspiration for the post came from a tweet by Amanda Rykoff, who elaborated on the tweet on her blog: Amanda’s World.

New “craft beer” stand at Yankee Stadium twitter.com/amandarykoff/s… — Amanda Rykoff (@amandarykoff) April 1, 2013

The controversy follows the Craft vs Crafty statement made by the Brewers Association, which called for: “…transparency in brand ownership and for information to be clearly presented in a way that allows beer drinkers to make an informed choice about who brewed the beer they are drinking.” Opinions on both sides of the issue can be followed on Twitter (#CraftvsCrafty).

Later on April 13, Rykoff tweeted that the stand name had been changed:

Breaking beer news: Yankees have changed name to “Beer Mixology Station.” @deadspin twitter.com/amandarykoff/s… — Amanda Rykoff (@amandarykoff) April 13, 2013

While the name has been changed to the less contentious “Beer Mixology Destination,” promoting the MillerCoors’ beverage blends available at the stand, but the change does nothing for the craft beer fans at Yankee Stadium who would prefer to support craft beer. A beer stand with true craft beer from New York’s small and independent craft brewers would be a home run.

Koch says, “Now let’s speak up and demand real craft beer!”

Andy Sparhawk, the Brewers Association’s Craft Beer Program Coordinator, is a Certified Cicerone® and BJCP Beer Judge. He lives in Arvada, Colorado where he is a homebrewer and avid craft beer enthusiast. On occasion, Andy is inspired to write on his experiences with craft beer, and if they are not too ridiculous, you might see the results here on CraftBeer.com.

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