Catie Holdridge
A Sussex-based brewery has upset fans of punctuation with its inconsistent use of apostrophes.
Apostrophe Protection Society member Jonathan Cook has taken to Facebook to campaign for Harveys Brewery to sort out its style. While the brewery usually omits the apostrophe from its brand name, Cook was apparently incensed after seeing the apostrophe suddenly included on beer pumps for Harveys Best Bitter at a Hove pub. (One can only imagine the internal turmoil he suffered, torn between a desire for consistency and for accuracy.)
According to the marketing boss at Harveys, Bill Inman, the name should be naked of punctuation, and the brewery takes no responsibility for errant apostrophes or vigilante pump-makers. ‘There is no apostrophe in Harveys,’ he told The Argus. ‘If one appears on a pump somewhere it is without official sanction and I want to see the evidence.’
In fact, the inconsistency is in evidence on Harveys’ own site, where the name on the Christmas ale label includes an apostrophe. Mind you, that might be a simple error that has something to do with the beer having an alcohol content of 8.1 per cent.
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