Naming Beer

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Kungpaodog

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My first batch was a kit beer, so my gut feeling is that I really shouldn't name it since it was someone else's recipe. I think that would be kind of like buying kool-aid and giving it my own name. What do you all think? Do all batches need to be named, or just the great ones?
 
I personally don't give a new name to batches that were someone's recipe or a kit. But, there's no rules in brewing other than to have fun with it.
 
I buy kits, but modify it to my own liking - so I name mine. A recent batch that is conditioning in the keg currently was kegged during a hurricane Ike storm, so I called it Hurricane Hefe-Weizen.

My favorite is Riccetti's Best. It is from an old science fiction book I read many years ago where every batch was different depending on what was available to brew with, and every batch was called Riccetti's Best (and nasty faces were usually made whenever people drank it). When I have a bunch of surplus malt, hops, and a few dry yeast packets sitting around, I brew a batch of Riccetti's Best - it is always different!
 
On first thought, I would be against naming a kit, but then after some more thinking, it would actually be very difficult for you to replicate EVERYTHING EXACTLY the way the kit explains. Somewhere along the line, there was a change (intentional or not). Name it if you want.
 
i cant even think of a name for my brewery yet
its driving me nuts, but i am sure it will come to me when the time is right.
 
I used to name my beers (do you old-timers remember my "Spank Me Red Ale"?) whether they were my recipe or not. I mean, I made them. They were just ingredients in the store until I came along. Now, I've brewed so many batches, I don't bother. They're just "blonde ale", "IPA", "Octoberfest", etc.

I subscribe to my momma's philosophy- "I made it in my kitchen, hence it's homemade". Kraft's Mac & Cheese became Momma's Mac & Cheese. You make it, you name it!
 
Name your beer if you come up with something that fits whether it is a recipe or a kit. No two are exactly alike.

Just don't worry about it. I name beers if something happened that reminds of of THAT beer. some are named and some I'll never brew again anyway. Some I call the yellow dot beer because that is my bottle cap sticker.

MY problem is I have a GREAT label and name but the beer is not turning out so good LOL Might have to reformulate it (like Oscar Meyer Beef Hot Dogs - same name, different dog)
 
Mostly important to know what that bottle you've come across is, so when it turns out to be great you can revisit the recipe and try again, or tweak it a bit and try again. That does mean keeping good records (preferably keeping them where you can find them, too). And allow me to insert my usual suggestion that you "lose" (at least) a six-pack or two from every batch for a year and/or two years, so you can see what age will do for it.

"serial numbers" or dates work for that much. When in my typical slow pace, I get beers like "fall 2001 porter" unless some event/thing/person/animal rears up and suggests a name. If I keep up with what I have in mind for the next few months, that won't work for fall 2008, but we'll have to see what's actually brewed.
 
Name your beer after the team that will dominate the NBA in the near future - Trail Blazer Ale! Roy Ale! Oden Ale! Aldridge Ale!

:)


Or name it after Star Wars.........Tarisian Ale.


Wookieepedia said:
Tarisian ale was an extremely strong alcoholic beverage brewed on Taris. It was one of the planet's main exports; the ale was made from the glands of a tach. Consuming just one was enough to intoxicate, or even incapacitate, inexperienced drinkers—or even experienced drinkers who were having their first Tarisian ale.
Perhaps for that reason, it was popular amongst the Sith troops who occupied Taris during the Jedi Civil War. The drink ceased to be produced after the planetary bombardment of Taris in 3,956 BBY, due to the fact that few offworlders knew the secret of how to make it, although Griff Vao claimed to have the recipe, and hoped to monopolize the drink after Taris was destroyed. Many of the Sith that purchased this drink may have used it as a way to forget the pressues of Sith life at the Barracks in the Sith Military Base which was described as "boring" by several of the Sith that worked there.
By 40 ABY Tarisian Ale made a resurface. Whether or not it was due to Griff was unknown.
 
So if you borrow a recipe from someone else (who has already named their brew), does the "YOU brewed it-manlaw" apply? I vote that it does.

*If anyone knows of a 'beginners kegging' thread, I'd appreciate the link!
 
I don't name my brews either. It's just easier telling my friends that it's a brown ale, a witbier or a porter.

Whenever I get around to printing labels, I might actually name them.

But yeah, I subscribe to the notion that you brewed it, you get to name it.
 
I usually name my own recipes, but I number all my batches whether there a kit or not. It makes it easier to keep track of them in my log. (ie: Batch #001 Kolsch, Batch #014 The Hoppit) That way if a batch comes out thats slightly different but in a good way i can remember what Im talking about.
 
Agreed. Epic, Talley.

Anyone else use another method to keep track of batches? My first few are just scribbled notes on the malt labels...
 
My favorite is Riccetti's Best. It is from an old science fiction book I read many years ago where every batch was different depending on what was available to brew with, and every batch was called Riccetti's Best (and nasty faces were usually made whenever people drank it). When I have a bunch of surplus malt, hops, and a few dry yeast packets sitting around, I brew a batch of Riccetti's Best - it is always different!

That wouldn't be Lou Ricetti by any chance would it?
 
I name them but I don't label them as such. I just put an "I" on the cap or a "PA" or "B" or "P" for IPA, Pale Ale, Bitter, or Pee. So basically I name the recipe not the beer and I give a nod to the original recipe I borrowed like Bride of Chaotica is based on Palmer's Chaos and Victory and Toothless shark refers to Dogfish sharks or Dog sharks which are sharks we catch that have no teeth.
 
I usually name my own recipes, but I number all my batches whether there a kit or not. It makes it easier to keep track of them in my log. (ie: Batch #001 Kolsch, Batch #014 The Hoppit) That way if a batch comes out thats slightly different but in a good way i can remember what Im talking about.

Good idea, but I never could understand the sequencial theory behind the "001, 002, 003." Unless its so that your batch numbers have no less than 3 numerals. If the answer is to maintain only 3 numerals, I guess that 1000th batch of House Ale is going to blow the whole thing up. :p
 
I stopped naming my beers after about 30 batches or so. I couldn't come up with many more clever names. :D

I guess I still kind of name them, but not individually. Any English/Scottish/Irish beer I brew is Blimey's xxxx (Blimey's Mild), French/Belgians are Dirty Monk xxxxxx (Dirty Monk Belgian Dark Strong Ale), German beers are Klaiberhaus, American beers are HopHed.
 
I'd name it if I brewed it. There are too many kits and recipes out there to worry about it, and besides, nobody is going to do exactly the same thing anyway, and even if they did, they each put their own effort into it.

I name each batch, if only in my head. My last batch was "Infection Ale". That one is still conditioning, while I decide how I want to salvage it. It's a Belgian Wit, so I might be able to add some flavorings to it and make it drinkable.
 
I name my beers and I label all the caps. I think its because the first book I read was TCJOHB and Charlie P names every recipe in the book so I figured that's the way to go. Now I kind of like the idea because the names on the cap differentiate different batches/recipes of a like style so I don't have 4 cases of "pale ale" and not know which is which.
 
If it's mediocre to decent, I'll just say, "Oh, it was just a kit." If it's it good to great I'll name it and claim full responsibility for everything to do with the beer from harvesting the grain to collecting the sand that made the glasses being used to serve the beer.
 
To me part of the fun of brewing is coming up with an appropriate name for each batch. Hell, my brewing notebook has some brew day pages with 8 or 10 possible names that I come up with before settling on one for that particular batch.
 
I absolutely name every batch, even if it's someone else's recipe. If three guys brew the same recipe, it'll taste 3 different ways. Anyway, it's rare to follow a recipe exactly...mostly due to the hop shortage.

I haven't named Jamil's Red Rocket clone yet though. Still thinking.
 
so if you subscribe to the naming of all beers, if you reattack on trying to make a batch better, does it get the same name? calling it ---- Ale II would be lame like naming a pet that.

do any of you mess with labels?
 
so if you subscribe to the naming of all beers, if you reattack on trying to make a batch better, does it get the same name? calling it ---- Ale II would be lame like naming a pet that.

do any of you mess with labels?

For myself I can only speak theoretically to the first part, since I'm early enough in the game that I've not made the same batch twice. But if I get to the point where I have a "haus ale" that I brew the same way repeatedly, I'd name it the same each time. If I was altering the recipe going for something different, it'd get a different name.

I don't use labels, because I keg. But even if I bottled, making labels for everything strikes me as something that'd be fun...once. And after that not so much.
 
yah i know im that guy who awakens a two year dead thread but oh well. Heres the answer to this looming dilemma. If you formulate the recipe, not just "tweak" it you name it, if not give a nod and keep the name the same as the person you got it from called it. I just dont see how you if you didnt take the time to formulate the recipe yourself test it, rebrew it, tweak it rebrew it, tweak it, rebrew it you can pass it off as something originally yours, me personally there is no way I would even want or consider doing that. As a matter of fact when I label my beer if it is from a recipe out of the complete joy of homebrewing or brewing classic styles i give a nod to the author of the recipe right on the label be it jamil or charlie or whoever formulated the recipe that I essentially copied and stole whether I myself brewed it or not. I dont know why you would want to pass something off as yours when it is truly not, so let this be encourangement to go forward and design your own recipes and try them out and tweak them and than you can proudly name them something unique to you and your love of brewing and you can put your name proudly on the label and noone will wonder whether its a book recipe or a kit because it will say it all on the label that this beer is genetically and uniquely yours. flame on rant over.
 
I have yet to name mine, but definitely enjoy hearing folks' names so now I'm on to the idea. Now I'm racking my brain...
 
flame on rant over.


I completely agree with you.

When I took down my stepmother's maple walnut salmon recipe and served it to a few friends awhile back I didn't try pass it off as my own...even though I'm sure my iteration tasted slightly different than her's. Same goes for beer recipes IMO.
 
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