What's in a name?

This is the first beer we brewed in response to the global hop shortage. We won't be brewing our flagship Pale Ale much in 2008, until the situation becomes clearer.

After deliberation, we decided to brew a Burton-on -Trent style pale ale instead. The best known of the bunch is Bass. The mineral content of the Burton water is what makes this style so distinctive. We condition our water source to approximate the chemistry of Burton-on-Trent.

During research of the area, we stumbled on a bit of unpleasant history. A Mr. Edward Whiteman, who happened to be a Puritan (the same Puritans who left England on the Mayflower), met an untimely end.

James I (yes, the same James that was responsilbe for the King James version of the Bible), was tolerant, somewhat, of the Roman Church, yet he still thought of them as those who were out to assassinate him. He adapted the full extent of Calvinism and wrote four books on that theology. To show that he was fully for the Calvinistic perspective and totally against the Roman Catholic dogma, he had Edward Whiteman, one who denied the divinity of Christ, burned at the stake in 1611.

Unfortunately for Mr. Whiteman, he became the last person to ever be burned at the stake in England. Ed, this beer's for you!

Next subject: the red triangle that is forever associated with Bass, is actually the first trademark in the modern world. Pretty cool.

Since we brewed to the same style as Bass, we adopted the triangle, but with one modification. We turned it into a teepee fire. (We couldn't bear to actually depict Mr. Whiteman there, though.)

Last, and totally by coincidence, we struggled a bit with the name Whiteman, due to the inevitable racial overtones. His surname is pronounced "White" or "Wit." We decided to take the "e" out of his name, and we ended up with Whitman.

Which happens to be the name of a dog who died last year, owned by Brewdood and Saint Joan.

Heresy? You tell us.