how do you guys come up with names for your homebrews?

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Dave6187

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In my excitement to get started, I've been trying to come up with a name for my "brewery" so I can make a cool logo (i love graphic design stuff) and then start naming my beers accordingly, but when it comes to naming things my artistic side runs and hides... so yea, I'd like to hear where you guys came up with your brewery and some of your HB names :p
 
A few years ago, one night around a firepit, we were talking about me being a Brewmistress, and decided that my next beer, a red ale, would be "Spank Me Red Ale".

Otherwise, I have such creative names as "Yooper's House Pale Ale" and "Fizzy Yellow Beer". I can only fit really short names on the kegerator menu anyway. Todays offering: "AAA", "IPA" and "WW" are on the board.
 
I name mine after units or weapons systems that I have worked with or bailed me out of trouble...... If they are my recipes....... The Yellow ribbon is one for the swmbo
 
I suck at it. Seriously. The most creative beer name I've come up with is Grateful Pale Ale.

But it's probably because I try too hard. I try to come up with clever and meaningful names. You should see me when I try to name a new server-- it can take hours or days!

At this point, I think I'm just going to come up with random seemingly clever names like Rock Slide Bitter, Leafy Green IPA, or Twilight Porter. I just came up with those looking out my back window right now-- no meaning at all, but they sound cool, right? :cross:

As for my brewery name, a friend actually named it for me and made a logo to go with it, so that didn't take any creativity on my part at all.

-Steve
 
hmm alrighty. So far i've come up with these for brewery names:

Mosh(gf's idea, kinda fitting cuz me and mosh pits get along very well)
Spare Change(something I found online)
Train Bridge(reminiscent of where my friends and I would go and hang in our spare time in middle and high school)
Impala (My dad and i collect old impalas)
Yntema (my last name, before my ancestors changed it)
Roseland(my town)
 
I named my latest "Hair o' the Dog Pale Ale" because I found one in the boil. If it comes out good, I guess I'll have to throw a dog hair in each batch to replicate it properly.
 
I normally draw inspiration from brew day or from the recipe or from sometime when I am sampling the beer.

E.g., my latest IPA is called Sunrise IPA because I brewed it while the sun was coming up.
 
I just recently decided that my "brewery" if you can call it that, is "gypsy brewing" cause my old roommates used to call me a gypsy cause i always ended up accumulating random junk that i thought was of some value. ( most of which i actually ended up using in some manner that was valuable to me, so screw you roomies)

As per brew names, I always try to come up with good puns, but sofar SWMBO just gives me the "that's stupid" look....

Did come up with "Dog lick porter" cause the dog was licking up some of the boil over.... think i'll stick with that one.
 
Quincentennial IPA -- had five ounces of centennial for five gallons
EdWort's Bee Cave Haus Pale Ale -- That one was easy, it came pre-named!
Still thinking of something for the amarillo IPA...
 
While I know I don't need to come up with a brewery name or to name my beers, I was dicking around on the computer last night and thought it would be kind of fun to go with an lol cat theme. Obviously, to anyone that has no idea what lol cats are or the i can has cheezburger meme is they will probably think I'm slightly retarded, but hopefully those who do get it can understand the humor.

A quick stab at a label

label11.jpg


And some names off the top of my head:

I R Serious IPA
Celing Cat Kolsch
Monorail Maibock
Invisible Bike Bitter
Bukkit Barleywine

Thankfully I'll probably only rarely do labels or anything anyway and only for when giving them out to friends, but most of my friends are quite familiar with lol cats and would probably get a good laugh out of it.
 
I'm aiming for a robot menace theme myself, obviously. Having a label design with a description space helps for a playful take on it too. I actually just was inspired for two batches I'll soon bottle:

Industrial Revolution: This mild yet flavorful English bitter is just the thing to drink for an all-day session. And why not, since that machine took your job anyway?

Sticky Red Pulp: Fear not, fragile human! It is nothing but...strawberries! That's right, strawberries. Otherwise I never could have made you this refreshing wheat beer!

Future plans include:
Hunger For Grains* six-grain ale
*No wait that's zombies
and Bottom of the Stairs Barleywine

Still thinking on what to call the Midas Touch clone.
 
I named my latest "Hair o' the Dog Pale Ale" because I found one in the boil. If it comes out good, I guess I'll have to throw a dog hair in each batch to replicate it properly.

haha, I do the same thing. I once was brewing while drinking (weird, huh?) and while taking a temperature reading the pen which was behind my ear slide out, bounced off about 4 things including my hand's multiple attempts to catch it, and splashed in the kettle during the boil. Instead of reaching for it, I simply stood there and asked my brew buddy "Did that really just happen?" He couldn't answer me because he was laughing so hard he almost collapsed due to lack of oxygen. So now, just for $h!ts and giggles, I usually toss my pen in the boiling wort to add my "unique flavor"

BTW, that brew was named "Ball Point Bavarian Weizen"

EDIT: As I read my own post, I noticed that I rated my "Ball Point Bavarian Weizen" with a 4 out of 10. Maybe I should stop throwing a pen in the boil?
 
hmm alrighty. So far i've come up with these for brewery names:

Mosh(gf's idea, kinda fitting cuz me and mosh pits get along very well)
Spare Change(something I found online)
Train Bridge(reminiscent of where my friends and I would go and hang in our spare time in middle and high school)
Impala (My dad and i collect old impalas)
Yntema (my last name, before my ancestors changed it)
Roseland(my town)

I think Train Bridge sounds the best out of those.

While I haven't really named my brewery, if I were to, the front runner would be HorribleCatfish Brewery. It's from a Spock's Beard tune.
 
I agree that you should name your brews based on something that happened during the brew sesh. We name our beers buddha-something (we called ourselves buddha-brewing)

a couple examples:
Black-hole buddha stout (it was really really dark)
Buddha's Dirty Bung (wheat beer, we learned to use a blowoff rig after this)

Recently we've been lazy and just writing a letter on the bottle cap to differentiate. I'll reach into the fridge for an "A" (pale ale), "II" (imperial IPA), or a "P" (porter).

I'm starting my own brewery at my new place and I'm thinking of calling it "Big Horn Brewery" - big horn sheep are common where I'm moving to. Possible beer names: Ram's Head Pale Ale, Black Sheep Bock, Three Bags Full Tripel... you get the idea.

Brew on!
 
I've also been tracking down the "I kinda want to name a brewery type thing because labels would be neat" path.

So far I've generated Kinetic Brewing (I'm an engineer) as a front runner. Naming things sucks.

+1 for naming stuff as you brew it.
 
I quit naming my beers.

My brewery is Falling Timber Brewery, and when I had grand visions of fancy labels I had great names picked out like Sawmill Stout, Logger's Lager, etc... Now I just label my beers Stout, Red Ale, etc....
 
My cousin and I brewed our first batch together.

The morning of the brew he learned his friend had passed. I asked him "did he have a nickname"?

"Capn' Jax Pale Ale" is the result!
 
I'm working on my first label right now for a double IPA that I bottled yesterday. I'm calling it Avalanche Double IPA becuase the first batch I ever brewed was and IPA extract kit that came with whole leaf cascades. My buddy and I loved the smell of the fresh hops (and the brew came out good too), and we talked about making a stronger version called Avalanche (cascade, avalanche, you get it). 6 years later, I finally got around to doing a big double IPA, so I went with it.

As for a brewery name, I never thought about it until I started to design the label, but all the different houses I lived and partied in when I should have been in college were always referred to by the street name. So, I went with Bishop's Cove House Brewery since I now live on Bishop's Cove Way.

The only other brew I've named was my Breakfast of Champions Strawberry Hefe because I ate strawberry/banana yogurt for breakfast for years.

EDIT: Oh yeah, the runner up name for the double IPA was Ursa Major "The Big DIPA"
 
I haven't really decided on a name yet, but so far I like White Horse Brewery. My last name is of Dutch origin(De Witt) and it means White. We have horse's and it pretty much encompasses my lifestyle. So White Horse seems to be the best fit. My Pale Ale is Centennial Gold, after the hops I use. My IPA will be called Trakehner IPA, name after a type of Jump in the Cross Country phase Three Day Eventing. That's all I got so far, but the names should really mean something to you, IMO.:mug:
 
I came up with "Tide House" as a play off the infamous tied houses and because I love all things nautical. My favorite recipe name so far is the "Ailin' Sail" IPA. (Yeah, I kinda have a thing for puns)
 
I lurves me some plays on words, and consider naming the brew to be the actual best part (just short of drinking it) of the hobby.

Thus, some recent names:

Rye Wouldn't I?
Don't Be Bitter
Minute Wheat (the recipe had instant rice and wheat malt)
Burn One Down Rauchbier
A Promise to Arthur (a stout with Golden Promise malt as the base)

Let's face it - you're the only one you have to impress with your brew names. Come up with a good one, and stick with it - folks will know it by name. How do you think Winterhook or Arrogant Bastard got so famous?
 
I normally draw inspiration from brew day or from the recipe or from sometime when I am sampling the beer.

E.g., my latest IPA is called Sunrise IPA because I brewed it while the sun was coming up.

Hah. My most recent IPA is Sunset IPA. It's a take on a traditional British IPA, and the name comes from the old quote "the sun never sets on the British Empire"--it did, and on traditional IPAs as well.

The follow-on variant (using EKGs instead of Fuggles) is going to be named Evening Star IPA, a progression inspired by Tennyson's poem Crossing the Bar, which begins with the line "Sunset and evening star and one clear call for me/and may there be no moaning of the bar when I put out to sea".

I generally try to pick names that are somehow related to the beer--there's an Australian kristalweizen called "Redback" (which is a venemous spider), so my clone attempt is "Brown Recluse Kristalweizen". Sort of the American version of a Redback.

Other times they're just names drawn somehow from an unrelated phrase that shares a word or two--e.g. my California Common is Stanley Steamer, in honor of the old steam-powered car manufacturer as well as the old Steam beer moniker.
 
Haven't named any yet (haven't invented any yet) but this thread got me thinking about it a bit. I'll probably either look at the color and work off of that (Communist Red, Portokali Amber, Black As Pitch Stout, etc) or riff off of a theme/movie/band that interests me while I'm brewing/bottling (Body Bag Kolsch, Flying Armbar Pale Ale, Reverse Squat-Thrust Porter, etc). I dunno, It'll hit me when the time is right.
 
My beers are in plain brown bottles with numbers on the caps written with a Sharpie.

My wife wants me to make labels and give them cool names. Sometimes that seems appealing, but sometimes I think it's kind of goofy, like I'm playing brewer. I mean, I'm making beer in my kitchen and fermenting it in plastic buckets in a closet.
 
Nerd alert!

I am a big fan of the Dune books, so I pretty much follow that theme. People who don't read the books don't really get the names, but at least they sound kind of cool.

Muad Dib Spice Ale
Mentat Marzen
Golden Path Hefeweizen
Princess Irulan Mild
Old Baliset Brown Ale
Ixian Pale Ale
Landsraad Vienna Lager
Tears of the Maker ESB

Go ahead, laugh.
 
Nerd alert!

I am a big fan of the Dune books, so I pretty much follow that theme. People who don't read the books don't really get the names, but at least they sound kind of cool.

Muad Dib Spice Ale
Mentat Marzen
Golden Path Hefeweizen
Princess Irulan Mild
Old Baliset Brown Ale
Ixian Pale Ale
Landsraad Vienna Lager
Tears of the Maker ESB

Go ahead, laugh.
My old roommate used to run around yelling "Shai Hulud" while waving his golf clubs in the air. I laughed at him too.

I e-mailed him about your Muad Dib Spice Ale and he was intrigued to say the least.
 
I have to say that I suck at coming up with hames for my brews. My best name by far is the Burned Foot IPA I brewed during said brew I actually burned my foot.

Maybe a little motivation to start naming brews, the yet to be released new version of the Brew Builder will allow people to save brews into a database for other people to view/buy. You will be able to name your brew, have your brewery name displayed along with your brewery logo on every recipe that you submit to the database.
 
When in doubt....
Cerveza sin nombre
Bier ohne Namen
Bière sans nom
Bier zonder naam
Piwo bez nazwy
맥주 이름없이

etc



 
For a while I didn't think I was good enough to have a brewery name, but I called myself Kallisti anyway (if you don't understand why, consult your pineal gland). I think I make good enough stuff that I can justify it (an extract kit from a LHBS does not a brewery make, but after 8 AG batches I think I'm ok). I just decided to put it in my sig because hey, why not.

As for beer, sometimes I'm inspired (like my Irish Red being Red Tick Beer, a Simpsons reference) and sometimes not. I decided that for each beer I can't name, I'll use the next song in The Clash's discography. So far I've only used Janie Jones (APA) and Remote Control (cherry milk stout). Oh, and a group of friends doing informal beer tastings decided to call themselves the Yeastie Boys, so I'm having fun coming up with Beastie Boys related puns.

I also think I'm going to use songs by Coheed & Cambria for my high gravity beers, the first of which was the Westy 12 clone (so something monk-related?) I was also brewing to celebrate the future birth of Minifoos (so something parent related?) leading me to Mother Superior. I had a gallon or so of second runnings that I boiled for the hell of it with the leftover hops, so for that I wanted something in the song that was about something small, so Little Rabbit. I'm going to be lucky to get a bomber of that though.

So, for me I just steal musician's inspiration :D
 
While I know I don't need to come up with a brewery name or to name my beers, I was dicking around on the computer last night and thought it would be kind of fun to go with an lol cat theme. Obviously, to anyone that has no idea what lol cats are or the i can has cheezburger meme is they will probably think I'm slightly retarded, but hopefully those who do get it can understand the humor.

A quick stab at a label

label11.jpg


And some names off the top of my head:

I R Serious IPA
Celing Cat Kolsch
Monorail Maibock
Invisible Bike Bitter
Bukkit Barleywine

Thankfully I'll probably only rarely do labels or anything anyway and only for when giving them out to friends, but most of my friends are quite familiar with lol cats and would probably get a good laugh out of it.

Oh man...that is pure genius :mug: I wish I thought of that.
 
There was a thread about lolcat beer names floating around somewhere... but I agree, that label is masterful :)
 
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