Name Your Beer

Curious how other come up with names for their beers?

Mine often go by the hops:

SASHA = Summit, Amrillo, Simco Hopped Ale
ChinOak = Chinook aged with oak
Snooky IPA = Simcoe, Northern Brewer, Chinook

Let's hear your beer names and why.

AnOldUR said:

Curious how other come up with names for their beers?

Mine often go by the hops:

SASHA = Summit, Amrillo, Simco Hopped Ale
ChinOak = Chinook aged with oak
Snooky IPA = Simcoe, Northern Brewer, Chinook

Let's hear your beer names and why.

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I'm brewing an American Amber today that I'm calling "Yak Attack".

Why?

Because my wife got a stomach flu/bug last night and spent most of the evening yaking in the bathroom.

(And we seem to have an animal theme going on with beer naming... so there's a double-meaning.)

My beer names tend to be references to the geeky things I like- Science Fiction and the Bible.

My Black IPA was "Emperor Ale" after the emperor from Star Wars (It is your destiny)

I named a hefe "Mighty Warrior" in reference to Gideon from the book of judges. When Gideon was first approached by an angel, he was threshing wheat and called "Mighty warrior"

I named an extra pale ale "Theotokos Extra Pale" because when I drank it, it made me feel warm and happy- Just like the mother of Jesus would've.

"Memorial" was brewed on Memorial day.

St. Arnold Tripel is a reference to St. Arnold of Soissons, the patron saint of brewers and hop pickers.

I name all of my brew, usually pretty random but almost always something to do with the process, the origins of the style, who I brewed it with or special ingredients.

I've had 3 drunk monks tripel. La fee verte (the green fairy) absinthe barrel ipa. Double black diamond whiskey fortified stout. Ginger childs irish red. Shipwrecked saison (a brett beer). Etc.

I name some and some get generic names.

A lot of them are from events. that happened on brew day.

Fool pale Ale. brewed on April fools day
Super moon Amber. brewed on the day of the super moon
Faultline Stout.. fermenting while we had a rare earthquake on the East coast.
Blonde Rapture,... brewed on the day the world was supposed to end.
Eye Of Irene IPA. brewed the day Irene hit. ( got it in the fermenter before things got heavy)

Other get their names from the brew.

Lights Out IPA... black ipa
Dubbel Date... A belgian dubbel with dates added at the end pf the boil
Tree Hopper IPA.". started out as thre hopped Ipa but morphed into tree hopper.
Celebration Saison.... a brew I did for a family reunion.

King of the North - Scotch Ale

Reference to Game of Thrones, since the storyline is a loosely based fantasy representation of Scotland & England. King of the North & the Starks are badass and I couldn't think of a better combination of perfecting a Scotch Ale for the upcoming season.

Herb + Spice - English IPA with Cinnamon

Obviously herb (challenger and cluster hops) & spice (cinnamon)

Utopia - English Barleywine

Based on Englishman Thomas More's historical philosophical text from 1516 of a perfected society. I like history. More specific English/Scottish history.

A California blonde ale with enough hops to take it out of style -
Kangaroo Blonde (Hop to it Blondie!)


A mixed bag of grains (a mutt of grains), warrior hops for bittering and Cry Havoc yeast -
War Dog Ale (Cry Havoc and let Pour!)


A hefeweizen knock off with extra wheat in the grain bill brewed with someone who called it Heifer (as in the cow) Wisen -
Smart Cow Ale (Wise Heifer's beware!)

I enjoy my beer.

Badfish IIPA - a memorial beer for a great friend of mine who passed a few months ago. Huge sublime fan, wild and passionate personality, amazing fisherman/diver. He was one bad fish. Recklessly hopped with 4 varieties and 10abv

Red White and Blue imperial pale ale - 13# grain bill, warrior and liberty hops. White wheat, blueberries, and red raspberry.

Tropical storm blonde ale - named for the lovely weather that comes with hurricane season. As well as the motueka and citra hops used.

Ben Jammin IPA - tribute beer to my awesome red headed friend Ben. Combination of citrusy hops, fresh ginger, and blood orange fruit and zest. Was originally named the daywalker ipa.

I'm a big time horror fan and I tend to name my beers after references to the horror genre in general.

They're Coming to Get You Barbara Blonde Ale (prominent line from Night of the Living Dead, and the referenced character was blonde)

Amityville Amber (self explanatory)

Camp Blood Imperial Red IPA (Friday the 13th reference)

Re-Animator Stout (coffee stout named after a B-movie series about bringing corpses back to life)

Sunnydale Pale Ale (name based on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a particular guilty pleasure of mine)

Winchester Tavern House Bitter (from Shaun of the Dead)

My brewing name is Naughty kitty brewing (swmbo's nickname) so all of my brews generally have a cat theme to them

Abyssinian Wheat
Alley Cat Amber
Bobtail Pale Ale
Calico pale rye ale
Fat Cat double IPA
Black Kat Christmas Ale
Havana Brown Porter
Himalayan Brown
Snowshoe Centennial Pale Ale
Stray Cat Steam Beer
Tomcat IPA

I name them by whatever I can come up with.
Rye me a river, a rye ale
Hopstatrician IPA a heavily aroma hopped ipa
Ladybug ipa, an ipa that a ladybug fell into during the cool down.
The carpets don't match the drapes blonde ale
Rat dungeon ipa, a standard ipa but that day I found a mouse in a mousetrap in the garage

didn't name my last brew, but shouldn't be hard considering a bee flew into the boil of my IPA using honey malt..

flamethrower esb. because i noticed the hose from my propane tank was smoking because it got too close to the burner. almost made my own flamethrower

Well I have mostly plane names but I do have a few original

HopSlap - keep your hop hand strong double IPA
Local Needs - Belgin Trippel (named by Friend)
Smoky Is That You! - Apple Wood smoked IPA
Barrels of Fun - what ever we brew to sour in a barrel

I've never named my beer. My black IPA is.....black IPA. My imperial IPA is...............you guessed it.........imperial IPA. I brewed an Irish Red today. I'm thinking of calling it.....................Irish Red.

I have one still finishing in primary and that one will be called... Sweaty Cajones DIPA. I sweated my gonads off brewing that one. It was around 96*F that day.

I call my cream ale "Left Burn". Cream Ale to me seems like a blue collar working mans beer. I can drink a lot of these after a long hot day slingin' pipe. A left burn is the guy on the job site who is the boss. He's easy to find just look for the burned left arm, from it hangin out the drivers window. The boss drives the truck and the apprentice or helper aka, "right burn" is in the passenger seat.

Ive also got....Pink "Eye PA", turned out not quite an ipa but a hoppy pale.

Puget Island Ale....pale brewed with mint

I've come up with a lot more names but havn't brewed em yet. Most of my names have to do with local history. I live on the lower Columbia River SW Washington, lots of logging, gill netting fishing, mint farming, dairy farming...

My recipes have names related to The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings

MaddBaggins Pale Ale
Eleventy First IPA
The Great Eye P A
The White Rider Vanilla Porter
Bagshot Row Brown Ale
Silmarillion Saison
Brandywine Barleywine
Weathertop Kolsch
Pelennor Stout
....

craigger64 said:

I've never named my beer. My black IPA is.....black IPA. My imperial IPA is...............you guessed it.........imperial IPA. I brewed an Irish Red today. I'm thinking of calling it.....................Irish Red.

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I'm with you.

As I start perfecting recipes, I might try to pick some names for my favorites. For now, it's more important for me to explain the style to friends / houseguests than it is to have a cutesy name.

All of mine have been named after roleplaying games:
1 Barter Ginger Beer
No Strings Ginger Ale
Spanterhook Stout
Quiet Year Brown Ale

I name my beers relevant to style, ingredients, and what may have transpired on brew day. Last brew kegged was my "Gut Schmecken IPA"" because I drooled into the boil kettle when trying to blow out a stuck sparge. Mouth greeted with 160° wort so I dribbled into the kettle pre-boil. Still tastes good. I named one brew "Citrachronica" because l single hopped the hell out of it with Citra and watched an old Kat Williams standup that night. Next Weeks brew is in honor of Jr.Seau and I am calling it "Say Oww" or "Fifty5". I am shooting for 5.5% ABV and 55 ibu as well. The man is a legend here in SD. Oh yeah, last nights brew of a clone, "Basstard Sons".

Is that the Lost Abbey tasting room in your avatar? That's one of my favorite breweries to visit in SoCal.

CaliZona Hover = clone of Stone Levitation brewed in California then transported to and fermented in Arizona.

Edge the Belgique = Belgian DSA just outside of the style guidelines, because of hops

I don't name all my beers, but sometimes I get some good inpsiration:

I'm currently drinking Ray Gun Weizen (a session strength beer based on the grain bill proportions from Terrapin Gamma Ray wheatwine)
I've brewed West Coast of Belgium IPA (a west coast style IPA brewed with Belgian yeast)
My coffee oatmeal stout is called Not Just For Breakfast Stout
For some reason I call my vanilla bourbon oak porter Albino Monkey Porter (it just came to me one day, and seemed like a fitting visual comparison to relate the dark color and roasted character to the smooth vanilla and oak/bourbon character...)

i just label beers, description of their style. i think i named one beer i made to sit for a year something like "one year old ale". no offense but i completely cringe when i read some of the names homebrewers give. especially google translate german names for german styles (as if thats necessary...) or most names with the word hop in it. there are a zillion hoppy beers homebrewed or otherwise, it just isnt necessary to claim that yours is hoppy

bring on the hate

Naming is really fun, I think. Here are some of my favorites

Fool's Gold - Marzen
Brewed 3/31, but fermentation didn't start until 4/1

Dorchester Abbey - Dubbel/Brown
Hybrid of English Brown and Belgian Dubbel

Show Mead the Honey - show mead

Hopfenhimmel - IPA
German base malts, hence German "Hop heaven"

Highlander - Scotch Ale
Eclipse - Schwarzbier
So it goes - Rye Ale (Catcher in the Rye...)
Favre or #4 - Brett ale

That's no Blue Moon; it's a space saison - Blue Moon clone, from the Star Wars name thread (not mine)

I name my beers after song titles. Music is such a big part of me, that it just seemed appropriate.

ktblunden said:

I'm a big time horror fan and I tend to name my beers after references to the horror genre in general.

They're Coming to Get You Barbara Blonde Ale (prominent line from Night of the Living Dead, and the referenced character was blonde)

Amityville Amber (self explanatory)

Camp Blood Imperial Red IPA (Friday the 13th reference)

Re-Animator Stout (coffee stout named after a B-movie series about bringing corpses back to life)

Sunnydale Pale Ale (name based on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a particular guilty pleasure of mine)

Winchester Tavern House Bitter (from Shaun of the Dead)

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I have a similar affinity for horror movies--the Zombie sub-genre in particular. I call my little operation "Zombie Moan Brewing." My recipe names are inspired from something in the genre.

Romero IPA - My first recipe. A single hop IPA named after the Godfather of the modern zombie movie.

Rage Virus - The name of the bug that caused the fallout in 28 Days Later. The recipe is based on a clone of Surly Furious....hence, "Rage."

Herschel's Farmhouse Saison - In reference to the setting of season 2 of The Walking Dead.