Naming Beers you reproduce

[IrregularPulse]

I have a question about naming beers.
I feel bad making my own name for a beer I brew when it's from a kit or from someone else's recipe. I feel like (especially from another person's recipe) a bum for renaming their brew with my own name. The kits not such a big deal, but it's still not my own! Anyone else think this or am I being ridiculous and should just start ripping off names to my brews that I simply re-produced?

 

[[email protected]]

You're being ridiculous. Name away. Name like a madman. Name like a fiend. Unless you're using a friend's recipe, or you've made some sort of agreement with someone that you'd keep the name in exchange for the use of the recipe. But if you brew it, it's yours.

 

[aekdbbop]

eh don't feel bad...

you made it, it is your own...

Just don't claim it as your recipe.

 

[McKBrew]

The best way to feel better about this is to change something about the recipe. Add an additional malt and maybe change an existing malt (use caramel 60 instead of 40).

 

[9/9]

I felt this way at first, too. But I got over it.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

So why not start making your own recipes?

I had altered 95% of the kits I brewed and once I went all-grain I have never used anyone elses recipes. At most, I used Designing Great Beers for ingredient types but never ratios. It's not hard and is always at least drinkable an it's mine own.

 

[Kai]

Frankly, I never end up reproducing a recipe properly. Often because of my small LHBS's limited selection (What? You want a crystal malt less than 60˚? -- Centennial? Is that a fancy new one?), or because of my system's eccentricities, or just for the hell of it. And coming up with a good name is always fun.

 

[gruntingfrog]

Legally, recipes can not be copyrighted. They are counted as technical instructions. What you produce with these instructions is yours.

It's the combination of recipe and technique that produce a beer.

Your brewing process is the technique, so name it and get over the anxiety.

P.S.
I would give you the same advice if you were using one of my own recipes.

 

[MULE]

Just name it. That's all part of the fun too.

 

[Yooper]

Well, I agree. A recipe is fair game, and you can use it however you want.

However, it's only fair to be nice to the person who created and posted the recipe. There was a new poster on here once who I didn't know yet, and they posted "Need some advice with my recipe!" and posted the recipe and asked all kinds of questions about the ingredients. I was like, "Well, that is a mighty fine recipe you got there and I wouldn't change a thing." Considering you copied it and pasted from my drop down recipe menu.

When I do someones "special" signature recipe here on HBT, like Dude's Lake Walk, EdWort's Haus Pale, Kaiser's Alt, Bernie's Bust-a-Nut, etc, I make them as written, and then I put that in my signature. But for more general items like an amber ale, etc, I just call it whatever I want.

 

[gruntingfrog]

YooperBrew is right.

If you use someone you know's recipe it's only respectful to give them credit. This is the same as when you say you made "my Grandmother's oatmeal cookies."

If it's just some generic recipe from a magazine or book, though, call it what you want. That's half the fun.

 

[Bernie Brewer]

When I do someones "special" signature recipe here on HBT, like Dude's Lake Walk, EdWort's Haus Pale, Kaiser's Alt, Bernie's Bust-a-Nut, etc, I make them as written, and then I put that in my signature. But for more general items like an amber ale, etc, I just call it whatever I want.

Same here. I have four copies in my sig right now- two from EdWort, one from Yooper, and one from Pumbaa. They all have mention, as they should.

Edit: make that five. BYO's Wee Heavy is in there, too!

 

[Kevin Dean]

Credit the recipe maker if it's unchanged. If you've adapted it in some reasonable way, feel free to post it again (beer is simple so there will be overlap) as your own. What you call your beer is your business.

 

[Soulive]

I don't rename it if I follow the original recipe. Once I start tweaking things, I make it my own. I will print tap handles from EdWorts labels from time to time though. No point in tweaking those recipes

 

[homebrewer_99]

I agree with the above comments.

For example, if I brew a Paulaner Hefe Weizen clone I use the term "German-style".

I also use the term "variation of..." in some of my recipes.

 

[TexLaw]

Where I come from and the way I grew up, recipes are treasures. Often, they are someone's legacy. Like some of the others said, I would not think of renaming a recipe given to me, beer or otherwise, if I simply copied it. I might rename it if I tweaked it some, but I always give credit to the original recipe, as well. While I may actually execute the recipe, I did not go through the thought, time, trials, and effort to formulate it. After all, that effort is why I wanted the recipe, rather than just getting my hands dirty and figuring it out on my own.

Tweaking it does not make that recipe "my own," either. Again, how can I take that sort of credit? That's like taking a piggyback ride for 26 miles, jogging another 0.2 miles, and saying I ran a marathon. No, I didn't. If I do that sort of thing, I mention the original recipe in mine. A good recipe is more like a narrative than a technical manual, anyhow, so that isn't hard to do.

Now, I say all that in the context of recipes given from one person to another or published in recipe books with attribution (or on fora like this). If I pull something out of a magazine, I do not worry about it. If someone wants the recipe, I might let them know that I started with something from a magazine, just because I do not feel right taking credit for something that is not mine. However, I do not worry too much about the magazine, itself. I guess it's a curvy and blurry line.


TL

 

[njnear76]

Well, I agree. A recipe is fair game, and you can use it however you want.

However, it's only fair to be nice to the person who created and posted the recipe.

I agree to a point. If you are posting someone else's recipe, you should always credit the original author. I would even recommend stating that this is so an so's pale ale.

I like to name my batches of beer something unique since everytime you do brew something, it ends up being a little bit different.

For example I'm calling the batch of Jamil's Blond Ale, which I recently brewed, Suicide Blond. I like the name better, but I can't say I came up with the recipe and I will credit that it is his recipe when I talk about it in a forum.

 

[olllllo]

You can name the beer anything you want, after all you made it.
The beer is the physical product that you made, not Jamil. The recipe is one component in making the beer, so is the sparge method you used as well as the equipment.

No one names their beer CruiseNews Simple All Grain Sparged Igloo Cooler Ale.

Naming a recipe or representing it as your own is a different story. You can label it what you want but the recipe should always reference the source so that anyone can see the original and discern what changes you made.

 

[njnear76]

I agree with olllllo 100%.:rockin:

 

[IrregularPulse]

wow, thanks for all the input everyone. I definitely agree with crediting sources and leaving special recipes to their names. IE I am going to do a batch of EdWorts Apfelwein and have every intention on naming it just that. But for the 2 kits I'm gonna be naming soon, I will name away especially since I tweaked the first by dry hopping when there was no dryhop in the recipe.

 

[olllllo]

I think I ageed with you first.:rockin:

 

[[email protected]]

Yeah, what olllllo says.

You don't make dinner for friends and say, I made Better Cooking With Annie Lee's Lemon Chicken. So it is with beer.

If you're talking about forums, that's a whole 'nother kettle of wort. Accuracy is important when you're sharing recipes with other brewers, and you better give credit where it's due. And obviously if you're going commercial, you're just scum if you lift the recipe.

But what you print on the label? Different answer. Call it anything you want, unless the recipe originator is in your circle and is owed a little recognition. Then give it.

But the starting point was sort of asking, "Can I rename this brew store recipe?" Not only can you, you absolutely should, imo.

 

[david_42]

I'm with Yooper here, clones and other people's recipes get identified as such. Something like Austinhomebrew's Rogue Mocha Porter clone might seem like a bit much, but I'll give credit where due. Then there's Bent Rod Rye, which is a session version of Hop Rod Rye. That one is all mine.

 

[Donasay]

I don't name beers at all, they all get labels with things like IPA #4 or Porter #12 for each iteration of the batch. Every time I brew I change a little bit of the recipe based on how it tasted the last time I made it. Porter #1 and porter #4 were recipes I took out of a book, Porters number 2 and 3 and 5 through 12 are mine. Interestingly pon looking back at the log book Porter #12 is exactly the same as porter #7, with the addition of steamed oak chips to secondary, I guess the recipe for porter 12 and porter 7 are winners in my book and will be the house porter from now on.

 

[Surly]

I have a question about naming beers.
I feel bad making my own name for a beer I brew when it's from a kit or from someone else's recipe. I feel like (especially from another person's recipe) a bum for renaming their brew with my own name. The kits not such a big deal, but it's still not my own! Anyone else think this or am I being ridiculous and should just start ripping off names to my brews that I simply re-produced?

You can always name it as you like, but in your label, you can give credit. ie, "Brewed from Ed Wort's Bee Cave Pale Ale".

 

[cheezydemon]

Indeed. I don't label, but I do name.

I was shooting for sierra nevada once, but with my own recipe. I called it "Sorta Sierra".
Unless you are going commercial, just say "This an IPA that I brewed.......this is a porter......."

When you are new it is really tempting to cherish and name, but a 5 gallon batch will be gone and forgotten pretty soon, and you will be on to something else. I wouldn't sweat it one way or the other.

If it tickles you pink to call it something other than just beer, have at it.

 

[Teddi Brewski]

IMO, when it is bewed at your house, it becomes yours. Given the nano sized nature of our product, and the vagaries of time and space, would not all of our results on a given recipe be different? I'm pretty sure were all sourcing our water from different aquifers, so the #1 ingredient, the base, the cornerstone if you will of all of our beers, and the resultant beers themselves, are all...different. I say render unto EdWort what is EdWort's, and render unto me what is mine!