In May, I was in Hamilton, Ontario in Canada. Anytime I visit a city for a few days, I like to visit local breweries. One of the breweries that I visited on this trip was Merit Brewing Company.

During my visit to Merit I took a number of photographs. Towards the end of my beer, I was approached by a member of the Merit staff and was told that my taking of photographs was upsetting to the members of staff on duty. I was asked to leave the brewery, which I immediately did. I should mention that the request made by your staff member was done in a professional and respectful manner.

 It is quite apparent that my taking the photographs was very upsetting and harmful to the brewery staff. Some of the photographs I took (which included female staff members) were inappropriate. I would, therefore like to offer an unreserved apology to Merit and the hurt and distress I caused. It was insensitive and disrespectful of me to take photographs. The brewery is Merit’s space, and I should have been respectful of that fact. I was not.

As someone who writes a beer blog, my plan was to  write a short story about the craft beer scene in Hamilton. This story would have included one of two photographs from each brewery. After taking photographs at a brewery, I go through them on my iPhone and delete all but two or three that I might use in story. In the case of the photographs I took at Merit, all have been deleted from my phone.

While I have penned a letter of apology to Merit, I thought that I should also make a public apology through my blog site. I am extremely sorry for the photographs that I took, and I unreservedly apologize to Merit.