This Church’s Attempt To Portray Craft Beer As ‘The Devil’s Craft’ Backfired In The Best Way

Craft beer is the devil’s craft — at least, that’s what one Texas church wrote while warning citizens of alcohol’s ills in a local newspaper. Unfortunately, that ad backfired in a seriously devilish way.

The church, Hope Baptist of Canyon, Texas, wanted to impress upon readers the moral downfalls of drinking alcohol with Scripture-backed claims such as, “Jesus never drank booze” (alas, he drank grape juice), “Nabal drank booze” (and died of a coma because of it), and “Back Sliddon Israelites drank booze” (and subsequently lost their kingdom).

“Will we sell the youth of Canyon the revenues of booze?” the ad implored.

The answer: yes, if Canyon’s Imperial Taproom had any say in the matter. (And, okay, if those youth were also of legal drinking age.)


The craft beer bar and kitchen saw a business opportunity in the ad, and quickly took to their social media outlets with a generous offer for customers presenting what they called the “‘Devil’s Craft’ coupon” — i.e., the clipping of Hope Baptist’s ad — to receive one dollar off their bill.

“We’ll give you a dollar off for each one you bring in,” the Imperial Taproom wrote, “so feel free to bring multiple. Come enjoy some devilishly tasty craft beer and/or wine (grape juice with booze in it) with us!”

It wasn’t only Imperial Taproom who got a kick out of the booze-bashing ad — Taproom customers have been expressing their delight, with comments such as “More proof that these people don’t even read their own Bibles… last time I checked Wine was a big deal, especially to J Dawg there,” “So I guess I’m evil in the eyes of my Lord when I take of his flesh and drink of his blood at my Catholic Church,” and “There are over 200 references to wine in the Bible. Don’t know of any on Grape juice !!”

And of course there was the commenter who pointed out one of the most common arguments in favor of ancient imbibing: “Most people don’t understand that alcoholic beverages such as beer and wine were far safer beverages in ancient times than water, because people didn’t understand pathogenic microorganisms.”

Yes, exactly!

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