Branding your brew

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OrdinaryAvgGuy

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Maybe I am putting a little too much thought into this but I am having a difficult time coming up with a name brand for my future brewing endeavors.

You see, it's not that I am not creative with these types of things but I want a name that I can stick with for a lifetime.

I do not have any children yet but I suppose branding your beer with a name would be comparable to naming your first born child?

My concerns heighten as I am constantly daydreaming about owning and operating a microbrewery one day several years from now. I want a name that I can proudly display from my homebrewing days on..

This question is open to everyone but I am really interested in those micro-brewers who have taken their hobby to the full-time career level.

Did you rename your brew for success when you started to sell your brew or did you stick with your original homebrew name and had success.

For the homebrewers: Is this a shared concern or am I the only novice that shares this dilemma?
 
I have not branded myself I guess but I have no intentions of ever going big. Heck the first beer I brewed from my own recipe I just called it are you ready for it....Beer

Nope I do not worry so much about things:tank:
 
I have not branded myself I guess but I have no intentions of ever going big. Heck the first beer I brewed from my own recipe I just called it are you ready for it....Beer

Nope I do not worry so much about things:tank:

I suppose this would concern one who intends or dreams of "going big" one day.

If brewing ever does evolve into a career, I don't want to explain to everyone that I branded my beer after my favorite cat of 16 years.

I want a to share a kick ass story that gives my brew meaning with every sip.
 
Hey there is nothing wrong with aspirations and dreams. Most successful people started with just that. I know a fella who took the love of brewing full scale and is very successful today. Now Sam's story is a long one and I won't share it today but it is worth looking into.

As far as a brand name it just need to feel right. Now I can't quite remember what Mr. Adams ended up calling his product but I bet it was clever. Best wishes in your dreams and a toast that you reach them.
 
Hey there is nothing wrong with aspirations and dreams. Most successful people started with just that. I know a fella who took the love of brewing full scale and is very successful today. Now Sam's story is a long one and I won't share it today but it is worth looking into.

As far as a brand name it just need to feel right. Now I can't quite remember what Mr. Adams ended up calling his product but I bet it was clever. Best wishes in your dreams and a toast that you reach them.

Many of you probably already know that I am new at this. While I am not certain that i will one day be passionate about brewing, I do know that drinking a variety of microbrews has long been a passion of mine. If only I enjoy making it as much as I enjoy drinking it...
 
I'm not an experienced brewer... My first batch is seven days old and fermenting in the closet... But I am a marketer who has created a handful of brands.

I'll share with you a simple branding exercise that I use...

Think of some of the words that describe what you want the brand to represent or portray...

Eg. Delicious, strong, youthful, etc.

Create a couple of lists of words that are synonymous with those core terms... Have a separate list for nouns and adjectives (use thesaurus.com) ... Let yout mind wander with word choices.

Eg. Nouns for 'delicious'... Candy, chocolate, filet mignon, etc.

Eg. Adjectives for 'strong' ... Burly, hardy, massive, fierce, potent, etc.

Finally, go back to the lists and start combining the terms. Look for some word combinations or phrases...

Eg. Hardy Mignon, Fierce Candy, etc.

You can even combine words to create new words... The process helps to crystallize your thoughts on the brand as well as create a starting point for naming.
 
You can call it Cart Horse Brewing. Always putting the cart before the horse! :ban:

Nice! Maybe something like this..
Horse-cart-brewing-300x167.jpg
 
Maybe I am putting a little too much thought into this but I am having a difficult time coming up with a name brand for my future brewing endeavors.

You see, it's not that I am not creative with these types of things but I want a name that I can stick with for a lifetime.

I do not have any children yet but I suppose branding your beer with a name would be comparable to naming your first born child?

My concerns heighten as I am constantly daydreaming about owning and operating a microbrewery one day several years from now. I want a name that I can proudly display from my homebrewing days on..

This question is open to everyone but I am really interested in those micro-brewers who have taken their hobby to the full-time career level.

Did you rename your brew for success when you started to sell your brew or did you stick with your original homebrew name and had success.

For the homebrewers: Is this a shared concern or am I the only novice that shares this dilemma?

I have some pipedreams about running a brewpub someday.

I figure someday the name will come to you and you'll know that it couldn't be anything else. The name might have some personal value or represent a story or is completely random or in the "[adjective] [noun]" formula. How do you pick your forum usernames?

At least for myself, as a beer drinker of maybe two years, I used to order by name to start so the interesting ones caught my attention first.

Arrheinous Brewing would be a reference to a scientist Arrhenius and changing around that last bit. Now that's Arr-heinous, I'm thinking pirate scientists and from there maybe we get the "Black Hole Stout". I think going from an initial concept to final concept works better when it's indirect (A to C thinking, rather than A to B to C).
 
If you want a meaningful name with a good story, you're going about finding it the wrong way. Those aren't often created by sitting down and thinking really hard for a few days and then writing something down. If you don't already *know* what the name should be, just wait a while. At some point you'll realize what you should call it.

You can't manufacture Inspirado.
 
I have some pipedreams about running a brewpub someday.

I figure someday the name will come to you and you'll know that it couldn't be anything else. The name might have some personal value or represent a story or is completely random or in the "[adjective] [noun]" formula. How do you pick your forum usernames?

At least for myself, as a beer drinker of maybe two years, I used to order by name to start so the interesting ones caught my attention first.

Arrheinous Brewing would be a reference to a scientist Arrhenius and changing around that last bit. Now that's Arr-heinous, I'm thinking pirate scientists and from there maybe we get the "Black Hole Stout". I think going from an initial concept to final concept works better when it's indirect (A to C thinking, rather than A to B to C).

Interesting and thoughtful name.

I know that a name will come to me someday and that day could be tomorrow, next week, month, year, or even 5 years.

The debate that I am having with my self is whether to give it a name just for the sake of having a name to tell others when they ask and possibly alter or completely change the name later or wait until I come up with a highly marketable name in case I decide to sell my brew one day.

Sorry, just the marketing and sales side of me coming out.
 
I simply named mine after the street SWMBO and I live on. It's my first house since I moved to America from Scotland 8 months ago and I felt that it would be a nice reminder years and years down the line of where we both started out.

Plus it'll be nice to reminisce about this little house when we both live in our million dollar house! (Gotta have dreams and something to aim for, right?)
 
I think you are starting on a good foot. It is like when you buy your first house. You don't know what you want but when you see it, you will know it and own it.

Keep your ears and mind open for now and when it hits you, the name will stick and you will have your name.
 
Unless and until you're actually selling something (or trying to establish some sort of brand identity for other reasons), I wouldn't worry about it. Think about it? Sure, why not. But there's no reason that it can't change with every batch since there's not much need for a continuous identity.

For the occasions when I make labels, I have a little name and logo for the "brewery." It's a joke/running theme between a couple friends and I, but it wouldn't survive the transition to a commercial operation (there's already a moderate-sized brewery using the name). That doesn't matter, though, it's really just a fun design element to make the label look like a real product. Anyone who's talking about the beers I brew calls them my beers, not "xyz brewery" beers.

There's no reason not to have fun with it, but I'd start using a name when I happened to find one I liked. Until then, I'd just go without one.
 
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