Special Ed's Brewery Changes Name After Backlash

After enormous backlash for its insensitive name and branding, Special Ed’s Brewery in Galt, California, will change its name.

Owner Ed Mason, who received death threats when his company’s name went viral, met with parents of children with special needs and agreed the name and slogans like “tard tested, tard approved,” were wildly inappropriate, according to The Sacramento Bee.

“We finally came up with a new name, and it came from something my wife said – ‘These damn rocks keep getting in my way. We oughta just name it River Rock Brewery,’” Mason told The Bee. “It stuck. Now it just sort of rolls off the tongue.”

His wife was referring to the rocks thrown through the brewery’s windows amid the uproar. The original name, according to an interview with Fox40, came from a nickname for Mason.

“They’re saying I’m poking fun at people with special needs, absolutely not, that was never the intent,” Mason previously told the outlet. “We have special needs people in our family, we have a lot of friends with special needs, we love them all dearly … they bought off on this.”