How do you come up with names?

I was wondering if you guys gave names to your stuff?

I used to give a few. But after more than 30 batches running, my "names" have pretty much ended like "x type with y hops @ z% ABV" like a poor Rpg name generator.

What influences name giving for your beers?

I name them after life experiences sometimes. Usually something good or bad that happens between this brew and the last. Helps to remember it the next time you drink it (my memory is kind of weak).

Interstate 80/- Scottish Ale from driving back from out East this Xmas season (on the I-80) and wanting to make a Scottish ale as the first thing I did back at the apartment.

I mostly go with historical names or musical influences. I listen to a lot of history podcasts and tend to take some cool sounding names from what I hear. I keep a small notepad in my toolbox while I am working and listening to podcasts. When something strikes me I write it down right away.

Examples-
The Varangian
Stairway to the Inferno
The Reckoning
Sycophant
The 11th Hour(this is the name for my quad)
Sule Slayer(see KFAN.com Dan Barrerio page for an explanation, lol)
Narcissist(another big Belgian)
Cold Hard *****
etc.....

Well I remember one where I scratched my ex stovetop. We indeed called it the "Holy Stove IPA"

I'll look into it, but now since I brew on a corn boiler, it's always uneventful (thank science), good planning helped on that one. :cross:

My dad names all his beers after Tom Waits songs, which I think it pretty cool. The Black Rider, Earth Died Screaming and Little Drop of Poison are the ones he has off the top of my head.

I on the other hand, havent named any of mine yet because like you, I can't figure out what I want to go with.

I use my name.

SoperSlam
SoperJack
Ol' Dirty Soper Dropper
SoperBock
SoperHugger
etc etc

Usually what happens before/during the brew. Or something about the ingredients.

Gutter Squirrel IPA - A squirrel got stuck in our gutter the day I was brewing. Had to coax him out by dropping a hose down from the top.

Jurassic Bark - uniondr mentioned something about Jurassic beer on a thread, and then it hit me, Jurassic Bark! I've always been a dinosaur dork and loved the movie and book. This will be my next brew and it will be an oaked vanilla bourbon porter.

Dave Brew-beck's Take Five IPA - Dave Brubeck died recently, so I wanted to honor him. 5 grains, 4 hops (5/4 time signature of Take Five); West Coast IPA (West Coast jazz style); US-05 yeast (Take Five);

Coming up with a good name is like coming up with a character name for an RPG or coming up with a password on the spur of the moment. I usually just skip it. I think of the good ones when I'm not trying to and forget them by the time I get a chance to write them down.

zmanzorro said:

Usually what happens before/during the brew. Or something about the ingredients.

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This is what I do too.

I had a pale ale that during the boil we had a black snake join us and we ended up catching him in the fermenter bucket which he then sprayed nasty smelling snake musk into! We washed it well but we named that brew "Snakepiss Pale Ale"

If nothing exciting happens and it's a brew I've done before it gets the same name as last version with a "#X" added at the end.

I am not very creative; batch 1, batch 2, etc. works for me. Batch 58 is in the fermenter.

I can never really figure out anything to name my brews. They just end up in marked style boxes. I have hopes that the more I brew i will come up with some creative names here and there. I do like the idea of taking something from the brew day to name each brew.

Generally only name "creatively" on beers that have been rebrewed a couple of times and link those names to something that happened during the brew day (like others have done). Example: Wet Dog Hair bitter, so name due to my dog drinking from the sparge water bucket and subsequently leaving behind some of his hair. Otherwise, it's something like DS01 for Dry Stout recipe #1 - yeah, original. I know.

I kill a pig or chicken in the backyard while chanting. Then I smear the blood on myself and wait.

The latest batch is called "Cease and Desist"

i name some of my brews and other just get generic names.

Super Moon Amber.... Brewed on the day of the super moon
Eye Of Irene IPA... Brewed the day hurricane Irene hit us.
Faultline Stout... Was fermenting when we were hit with a rare earthquake on the East Coast.
Fool IPA... Brewed on April Fools day.
Armageddon Blonde.. Brewed near the day the world was supposed to end.
Celebration Saison....Brewed for a big Family get together
Crazy Belgian in the Attic. Fermented on my third floor and the ferment went crazy.
Lights Out Dark Ale.... A black IPA
Tree Hopper IPA... Brew with three hops and it just turned into Tree Hopper instead of Three Hopper.

Just to name a few......

I name everything something stupid to myself and my friends, or anyone that drinks them. They are usually puns or play on words. My second batch was an Oktoberfest that was ready the first week of November that I called "procrastinate", my third batch was a roggenbier called Third Rye Blind, I did a coffee amber called amber alert, an apple cider called A.C. Slater. You get the idea.

when I taste the wort. whatever comes to me. I used to come up with names before I brewed, but the inspiration comes from the taste. one of my favorite names was Monk's Spit. it was a Belgian Dark Strong.

I was brewing in the garage one time and a friend came by to assist...she grabbed a bottle of beer out of the fridge and promptly dropped it on the garage floor...I said...well that's gonna make my tires sticky when I pull my truck in...that batch was called "Sticky Tire".

Name your beer after something that happened during the brew. Make it memorable.

My favorite:

Cat Willow Brown Ale

One of my brewing buddies went to BJ's with a future swmbo and had their brown ale. He wanted to impress her and make a clone., hence Cat Willow Brown Ale. Can you figure out the name?

After 431 batches, I just say something like #430 German pils.

mannye said:

i kill a pig or chicken in the backyard while chanting. Then i smear the blood on myself and wait.

The latest batch is called "cease and desist" :d

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ok we might need to pitch in and get him help

I like to just name by hops or style mainly until I master a house ale or just hit a beer I would like to brew over and over then maybe I would come up with a name but for the time being its x-hop,x-yeast,x-grain maybe or style. I want to remember it by what I used, Im still finding out my favorate grains,hops,yeast and all that. And Ive made quite a few batches and most(common) styles. Until then its x this x that. Its like this: my first lager, I named and made labels for it "First Lager" below stated "brewed with.....". So origional,I know. It was a great lager though,one of my best beers too.

I have a friend that can name a beer in about Five min and they are great. Some times it is just a fluke deal. I made a Boulevard Wheat Clone then a few weeks later, After making 60gal of Barleywine and drank steady though the day I decided to dry hop a few other brews. That's how we got Accidental Acre, a Boulevard 80 Acre clone that wasn't planed. Or Big'y Smalls Stout ended up about 6.5%, Smalls off of original stout

I don't have many beers I've actually named but there are three ways I name them.

Brew to the name: somebody had a thread going about stout names and somebody else replied black hole, my train of thought went to singularity, which seemed fitting for a belgian stout. Bottled it last week. I was reading something that mentioned Pax Romana. Being a big fan off [unhealthily obsessed with] the Principia Discordia, my brain [pineal gland] decided Pax Discordia would be a great name for an APA. It was September last year, I had a ton of Centennial, and it was hard to find before the 2012 harvest, so I went with it. Watching some old Southpark episodes I decided scuzzlebutt is a great name--imperial stout coming up in a few weeks.

Continue naming convention: None so far, but this weekend is the first. APA with the same target OG/FGs and IBUs as my Pax Discordia, but all Mosaic hops. Still not sure if I'm going with Pax Mosaic or Pax Mosaica. Mosiac sounds better to me but I kind of want to force that A at the end, but at that point I'll be stuck with an A at the end of any of my APA variations.

A tip of the hat: Pretty much for clone brews and "inspired by" brews. My apricot ale is Magick Cap #23 [bonus points if you get it--not the magic hat #9 part]. Last year I brewed tripel on April 1, I intended it to taste like Eau Benite and named it Eau D'Imbecile in a rough translation of Fool's Water. This April 1 I am going to brew a golden strong based on the PranQster info in BLAM, with harvested PranQster yeast (I know that it is two yeasts and the ratio has probably changed) that I plan on calling LoQi. Scuzzlebutt reminded me of Yeti, which is probably part of the reason I want it to be an imperial stout.

I only have one that was named based on the brew day. My first dubbel and my first night time brew, different boil off than I was used to, very windy outside, autosiphon stuck while transferring wort, put a giant splinter in my heel while brewing, finished higher than I would have liked. Named her Nemesis, she's delicious now but a bit sweeter than I hoped for.

I drive truck for a living so I have alot of thinking time. I've done a couple of Star Wars theme names for beer like C3-PA (I came up with that one on Star Wars day...May the 4th), Imperial Stormtrooper IPA, Chew-bocka, etc. My favorite so far though is my Hop hoarder double rye IPA and I am a bit of a hop hoarder anyway, so it worked for me.

The same way family guy comes.up with ideas for a show.

MoPhunk said:

The same way family guy comes.up with ideas for a show.

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Dolphins?