Brewery agrees to stop selling ‘Suicider’ drink at festival after Samaritan volunteer complaint

A brewery has agreed to stop selling its cider product ‘Suicider’ at a festival after a Samaritans volunteer found it ‘insensitive’.

Suicider, by Wiscombe Cider, was being sold at Beautiful Days festival in Ottery St Mary in East Devon and brewed at the local Ottery Brewery.

Samaritan Daniel Hillier resigned as a volunteer for the brewery’s bar calling the product name ‘inappropriate’ due to its links to mental health issues.

Suicider by Wiscombe Cider, was being sold at Beautiful Days festival in Ottery St Mary, East Devon and brewed at the local Otter Brewery. Daniel Hillier resigned as a volunteer for the brewery’s bar calling the product name ‘inappropriate’ due to its links to mental health issues

In response, Otter Brewery said it would not sell cider under that name in the future.

Tim Chichester from Wiscombe Cider said in 40 years Mr Hillier’s complaint was the first he has had about the drink’s name.

Mr Hillier said although a ‘play on words’ the name did not sit well with him because of his volunteer work with the Samaritans.

‘I’ve personally lost two friends to suicide,’ Mr Hillier said. ‘There [were] probably a number of people at the festival that may have lost friends or relatives, and it’s just so insensitive of them to call it that.’

He added that the brewery did not seem to take his complaint seriously at the time.

Otter Brewing’s Managing Director, Patrick McCaig, said: ‘Quite simply, we won’t be selling that brand at the festival again.

‘We will take action straight away to make sure it’s not seen and therefore doesn’t upset anyone in the future.

‘Perhaps it was acceptable in the old days. It’s not now, so we all need to move on.’