Would you drink a beer called "Pubic Hair"?

Step right up, folks, and get an ice cold can of "the perfect summer beer, light body with a subtle citrus flavour from the New Zealand Hops! Find one in the wild or in Alberta's liquor stores and pubs"

So says Hell's Basement Brewery, out of Medicine Hat AB [Seriously. Look it up. Ed.], which launched Huruhuru (the Feather) New Zealand Hopped Pale Ale two years ago. Two years. That's how long it took for word to filter back to Canuckistan that "huruhuru" actually means pubic hair in te reo, the language spoken by the Maori people of New Zealand.

A Facebooker named Te Hamua Nikora, who is Maori, this week called out the brewery and a leathercraft shop in New Zealand for both using the word. "What's the first thing most Maori think when they hear the word 'huruhuru'?" asked Mr Nikora in his FB video. "It was brought to my attention a few days ago that there is a new shop in Wellington...and it's called Huruhuru Authentic Leather."

He said he sent the shop a Facebook message to ask what they thought the word meant. He said they responded that they found it in a dictionary as a word for "feather". "When the Maori look at the name of your store, they're not going to see 'feather' or soft leather," he said, "they're going to see 'pubes'."

The FB post quickly came to the attention of Mike Patriquin, founder and general manager of Hell's Basement Brewery, who responded with a stereotypically Canadian fulsime apology. "The interpretation was intended as 'feather' – meaning the beer itself is light as a feather and this is also stated in the name," said Mike in an e-mailed statement.

"We acknowledge that we did not consider the commonplace use of the term 'huruhuru' as a reference to pubic hair, and that consultation with a Maori representative would have been a better reference than online dictionaries. We wish to make especially clear that it was not our intent to infringe upon, appropriate, or offend the Maori culture or people in any way; to those who feel disrespected, we apologize."

Huruhuru IPA is to be rebranded. Names are being checked carefully with the PC police, and "AB0" (AB for Alberta and 0 as in "zero") has already been rejected.

Note from Ed.: Walt has returned.