“Go woke, go broke” was a culture war rallying cry of the Biden years, with American conservatives waging battles against any corporate entity that dared to pay lip service to diversity or LGBTQ rights.
But customers of one successful anti-woke alternative brand later found their own wallets a bit lighter—with nothing to show for it.
In April 2023, at the height of a right-wing freakout over a sponsored Instagram post in which transgender actress and singer Dylan Mulvaney showed off a can of Bud Light with her face on it, a Georgia man named Seth Weathers smelled an opportunity to cash in. Conservatives were vowing to ditch the Budweiser brand and take their business elsewhere. (A tearful Kid Rock even filmed himself shooting up a few cases with a semiautomatic rifle.) It was an angry political demographic in need of a new low-ABV lager.
Weathers, a political consultant who briefly served as Georgia state director for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2015 and went on to work with a county commissioner known for racist Facebook posts, swooped in to pitch a replacement beverage. Under his social brand “Conservative Dad,” he marketed a brew called Ultra Right Beer to the MAGA voters making a stink about trans inclusivity.
“America’s been drinking beer from a company that doesn’t even know what restroom to use,” Weathers said in a YouTube ad that included a clip of Mulvaney sipping Bud Light. “That’s why I created Conservative Dad’s Ultra Right 100 percent woke-free beer.” The commercial shows Weathers teeing up a can of Bud Light and walloping it with a baseball bat. “Stop giving money to woke corporations that hate our values,” he said, warning such companies to “stay the fuck away from our kids.”
The concept made a splash in right-wing media, which sent droves of readers and viewers to the Ultra Right Beer website to place orders—even though Weathers had yet to find a brewery to make the stuff. (He was also facing logistical hurdles to shipping the hypothetical beer, a process subject to heavy regulations that vary from one state to the next.) Within two weeks, Weathers had partnered with Big Kettle Brewing in Lawrenceville, Georgia, to produce the beer, and claimed he was closing in on $1 million in sales of six-packs priced at $19.99 apiece.
But while Fox News and similar outlets continued to tout Ultra Right as a stunning victory over Budweiser’s brewer, Anheuser-Busch, deliveries were slow to materialize. Weathers’ company, Ultra Right Beer LLC, would eventually receive an “F” rating from the Better Business Bureau, which notes that it has failed to respond to nearly 200 complaints over missing six-packs and virtually nonexistent customer service. The author of a one-star review of Ultra Right on the BBB website griped that its special edition “Revenge” cans of beer with Trump’s mugshot on them took a year and a half to arrive, while a “Fight”-themed six-pack (styled with the image of Trump raising his fist after surviving an assassination attempt at a July 2024 campaign rally) never arrived at all.
Weathers claimed in August 2024 that sales of the special edition Fight beer had reached the $1 million mark. It’s not clear how many orders of Fight beer ultimately shipped. On eBay, resellers have listed empty six-packs for as much as $115.
Two years later, around 400 people are members of a Facebook group called “People Still Waiting for Ultra Right Fight Beer,” with many claiming that they have received neither the limited-edition beer nor a refund after placing orders in 2024. “I no longer want the beer … just my money back!” reads a recent post on the page.
Enough of these customers have contacted Georgia attorney general Chris Carr to report on Ultra Right Beer LLC that the office has opened an investigation into the company, which has been unresponsive to compliance orders, according to court filings. Ironshield Brewing, the company that operated Big Kettle Brewing as a contract brewer, announced that it was shutting down in December 2023. Weathers did not respond to a request for comment and hasn’t posted to his Facebook or Instagram pages since late last year.
Many of the comments on Weathers’ dormant social media pages are from people demanding refunds or updates on beer orders. In response to a Facebook commenter who wrote that Weathers’ announcement of an Ultra Right restock in November was “plain bullshit” and called him a “thief,” Weathers wrote, “We do not want you as a customer,” adding that he had refunded the person’s order. “I cannot imagine how miserable someone must be to reach your age in life, to spend your time harassing small businesses who have made mistakes but is [sic] out here fighting for the causes you supposedly believe in,” he wrote.
Rich Alan, a police officer in New Jersey who spent more than $60 on two sixers of Fight beer that he says he never got, claims Weathers is a “fraud” and “scammer” who took advantage of Trump supporters. As his Conservative Dad character, Alan says, Weathers was “ stealing the hearts of these patriots and making you think that you're like you're one of them, basically. Like, ‘Hey, I'm just like you, I'm standing up to woke Bud Light.’ And then just taking their money and running with it.”
Paul Roberts, an employee of the Oregon department of transportation who shared a September 2024 receipt for three six-packs of Ultra Right Fight beer totaling $91.36, says he has tried in vain to get an update on the order. “Sent many emails, replies to texts, and on their Facebook page,” he says, and called a listed number as well. “No response.”
Both Roberts and Alan tell WIRED they only purchased the beers as collectible items and had no plans to actually drink them. They also say that their orders were not motivated by the Bud Light boycott. “I don't care what people drink,” Alan says. “You drink Bud Light, you drink Bud Light.” Roberts had previously bought the Revenge beer with Trump’s mugshot on it, which did arrive, although he says delivery was slow. “The mugshot had been used in a negative light, so I thought it was cool and collectible that they placed it on a beer can.”
Alan notes that as Weathers began running into difficulties with catching up on orders, he blamed these on legal wrangling with Anheuser-Busch. The company filed trademark opposition against Ultra Right Beer LLC in 2024, citing similarities to its own Michelob Ultra beer. Weathers called it an attempt at “corporate intimidation.” That litigation remains ongoing.
While Alan and Roberts have given up hope of getting their money back, they’d like to see justice served in some way or another. “I would like the state to enforce whatever laws apply to a business that takes your money and doesn't provide the product or service,” Roberts says. Alan adds that in his experience as a law enforcement officer, he’s used to seeing people get away with petty scams. “Accountability would be nice, whether it's seizing assets or seizing everything he has, some jail time,” he says.
“I'd like to cross paths with him one day,” Alan says of Weathers. “I'm sure a lot of people would.”