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Oklahoma Brewery that Offered Free Beer to Teachers on Strike Raided by State Officials

C'mon—if you can't give public educators fair wages, at least let them have some free beer!
Oklahoma Brewery that Offered Free Beer to Teachers on Strike Raided by State Officials

Public school educators in Oklahoma have been staging a large, rather inspiring statewide protest for two weeks now, demanding fairer wages and more solid worker protections.

Protesting is work that can empty the soul and the stomach. It makes you utterly famished and thirsty as shit. You've got to wash that protest pizza down with something.

Last Sunday, Patriarch Craft Beer House & Lawn in Edmond, Oklahoma proudly declared that it would be offering free pours of a beer called "Respect Party" to famished protestors. Respect Party, Patriarch claimed via a Facebook event page, was a Belgian table beer brewed by nearby Roughtail Brewing Company in Oklahoma City. "Come help us float some free kegs just for being awesome," a subsequent Instagram post advertising the event (meant to be held last Tuesday) read.

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But the brewery soon ran into trouble, VinePair reported on Friday. An officer for the ABLE Commission, a governmental body whose chief aim is to "protect the public welfare and interest in the enforcement of the laws pertaining to alcoholic beverages, charity games and youth access to tobacco,” didn’t quite recognize the name Respect Party as a beer he'd seen before.

The officer, according to FOX 25, grew skeptical, so he paid a visit to Patriarch himself and discovered the name hadn’t been registered formally. Upon learning this, ABLE officers raided Patriarch, confiscated the Respect Party beer, and slapped the brewery with a citation.

Patriarch didn't directly acknowledge the citation in public, but it was determined to express solidarity through beer anyhow. In somewhat cheeky Instagram and Facebook posts, below, the brewery vowed the promotion would go on.

Patriarch didn't respond to immediate request for comment from MUNCHIES on Monday regarding how it circumvented this citation, nor did Roughtail. ABLE did not respond to immediate request for comment from MUNCHIES on Monday regarding if, and when, it plans to file a case against Patriarch formally.

I mean, hell—if you won’t give teachers more equitable compensation, the least you could give them is beer.