Naming your brews

[C2H5OH]

Panic IPA - my first brew and it included a heavy dose of panic - from having to sub ingredients on the fly at the LHBS, to all the scary "you'll ruin it if you don't..." while brewing.
Bale Stacker Hefeweizen - because I could imagine no better refreshment after a day of haying.

Ahh yes. Every man's first. Brings back good memories.

Being a fan of Transformers growing up and it being my first brew. I went with...

Hop-timus Prime​

 

[Gruven96]

I

 

[CTownBrewer]

My 1st brew was an IIPA that I named "Dejhop Vu" because it was made shortly after returning from my honeymoon in California where I visited breweries including Stone, Coronado, Firestone-Walker, & Russian River. I had so many great IPAs, I wanted mine to take me back to Cali.

My 2nd Beer was named Deez Nuts Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout...no official story behind it. It just popped in my head & I found a great squirrel pic for the label.

My 3rd beer is in the primary as we speak. It's called Sidekick IPA (I'm from Cleveland & am a huge Cavs fan). It was obviously named in dis-honor of LeQuitter. I refused to use Cascade hops because I wanted to make a great IPA with the "role players" of hops traditionally used in great IPAs, not the "superstar" hop. I've got a nice blend of Simcoe, Centennial, Amarillo, & Chinook. It's gonna be bitter up front for sure, just like the mood in Cleveland these days!

 

[tjpfeister]

Most of my beers get a name on brew day.
Commonly the name is the person who sponsored the batch, or who the batch is being brewed for. "Dos Kanes" Is the unclever name for a Mexican lager style beer I brew for my friend's (M. Kane) garage.
My friends and I use nicknames on the women we date to avoid confusion. I commonly apply these to beers as well, such as the "Smarmy Blonde." When all else fails, put your brewery initials in front of the style of beer; "TCB Nut Brown."

 

[SumnerH]

For anything I'm going to brew often or that's a special occasion beer to be labelled and given as gifts, I try to come up with a name that has some interest to it. A few examples:

Sunset IPA An all-fuggles British IPA brewed in the style of the 1800s...they said "the sun never sets on the British Empire", but eventually it did.
Evening Star IPA An all-East Kent Golding variant of the Sunset IPA. A name to pair with the beer it's close to--Tennyson wrote "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."
Red Sky at Morning -- Inspired by Lost Abbey's Red Poppy, which uses their Dawn Patrol Dark as a base beer; the name references both and the old sailor's mnemonic "Red sky at night, sailors delight/red sky at morning, sailors take warning".
Seven Storey Abt 12 -- This is an American spin on a style often brewed by Trappists (BDSA). Seven Storey Mountain was the bestselling autobiography of Thomas Merton, a monk at the oldest American Trappist monastery (Gethsemani Farms).
Stanley Steamer -- A California Common, riffing on the old steam-powered car and the Steam Ale moniker.
Saison Duphunk -- A bugged Saison. Brewed with the Saison Dupont yeast, but bugged for funkiness.
Earl White -- This is a ginger/bergamot witbier; bergamot is what gives Earl Grey tea its distinctive taste, but witbiers are white.
Eternale -- Barleywine inspired by Dogfish Immort Ale


There's no overall theme, just thinking about what each beer is and looking for parallels or just something that sounds okay.

 

[mixedbrewer]

I just named one Hugh Hefnerweizen.

 

[thisgoestoeleven]

I didn't name my first batch, I was just concerned with it coming out correctly. My second batch is an IPA that I'm calling Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Hoppiness.

 

[Randar]

For beers that I do name, I try to do so at one of 2 points:

1) Recipe formulation - if I am basing the recipe on something or am inspired by a given recipe, ingredients (hop varieties for example), region of style origin, etc I may pick a name at this point

2) Tasting.



I have only had a small handful of funny/tragic/odd fermentations that deserved having the beer named at that point of production.

 

[munche]

My naming scheme is totally random, but I name all of my beers.

My "Brewery" is Wrath Brewing

Some of my beers:
Fail Ale - Pale
Hoppipola IPA
Yellow Fever Blonde
Lunar Industries - Blue Moon Clone
Dead By Dawn - Double Dead Guy clone
Empire Strikes Brau - My ESB (ESB = Empire Strikes...GET IT?!)
Zee German Heffeweizen
Red Scare - Red Ale
Red Menace - Imperial Red Ale
Imperial Palate Destroyer - Double IPA
Dunkelstein - Dunkelweizen
Wheattastrophe - A light wheat beer that came out freaking awful

 

[harrv]

I often drink beer while playing poker, so the Belgian Wit that is getting close to bottling is "Bad Beat Wheat" and the Altbier I made last Saturday is "All-In Alt". I've only made two so far, but I'll probably keep with the poker theme. I think the advice given in this thread to wait until you've had one or two is a good idea though. I may end up renaming these--which I have no problem with. I hope neither of them is so bad I end up using the name "Royal Flush".

 

[djt17]

#1, #2, #3...I am up to #28. I never claimed to be creative.

 

[jonmohno]

Mine usually depends on the circumstances during the duration of the brew through botteling.My first born brew was named full moon.Due to a full moon reference i had on a question about the non-airlock activity.I was told it would ferment faster during a full moon-( and it didnt matter to me weather its true or significant)because i still botteled it too early not knowing it needed to condition and settle after fermentation.I thought it was an appropriate name even though i didnt know Blue moon had that name- but who cares.

 

[thisgoestoeleven]

My wife and I are a bit geeky so this weekend I am bottling. DALEKS DELIGHT Cherry wheat ale. One of the Daleks on the bottle will say something witty like "I would EXTERMINATE the whole human race for another bottle."

Not sure if Daleks Delight is the Beer name or Brewery name.

Cyberman Stout?

 

[allaboutduncan]

My first brew I named after the street I live on (Sheffield Ale). The second I named after the coffee I used when I brewed (Donut Shop Coffee Stout). The third I named after some inspiration from Fallout 3 and Star Wars (Imperial Death Squad IPA).

So, there's really no rhyme or reason for me when it comes to naming my beers.

Can't go wrong with Star Wars, but your Street Name gave me the perfect name for my first brew - 4 days into fermentation right now.

Brickle Brown (it's A-Z Brown Ale from Extreme Brewing book).

 

[djonas]

Sometimes profound, sometimes random; the names for my beers have roots in many different sources. I listen to a lot of metal music and my brother likes zombie flicks so I was thinking about naming our next brew, a breakfast stout, Corpse Rouser. Better than a Bloody Mary!

 

[dougdecinces]

I've just started brewing, but I'm greatly looking forward most to naming my beers. Some names will come along naturally in the brewing process, but I have two I'm definitely going to use:

Queen B will my Alpha King clone with a slightly different hop profile. I came up with it both because it's a play on words and it's in honor of my girlfriend, Brittney.

A yet to be created Imperial IPA will be named Life Begins At The Hop and kudos to anyone who gets that reference.

 

[dcott]

Names always just sort of pop into my head. I've yet to figure out any rhyme or reason. That being said, I usually name them when I create the recipe (prior to brewing). Then, once I brew, sometimes I'll change the name. This happened a lot when I first started and wasn't always aware of what I would get in the end.

For example, I was trying to make an amber once, wrote the recipe, and called it "All-American Amber." Once I got the the LHBS, I had to sub a grain for amber malt that I thought would be the same thing (can't remember what it was). Turns out is was anything BUT a sub for amber. The good news, the beer turned out much more like a nut-brown ale and was DELICIOUS. So, I changed the name to "Squirrel Master Nut-Brown Ale." Good stuff.

 

[MasterOfTheWellHung]

My first brew is in secondary now, it is an English Brown Ale. I'll have to taste it first but I am thinking of Wild Dog Toes because that was the aroma when I was transferring it. My brother made an Old Speckled Hen clone that he named Old Spotted Cock... Brilliant

 

[Veinman]

All parts of making homebrew should be fun. If you get joy out of naming individual beers, your "brewery" or a line of beers than by all means do it. If you find it a chore call it IPA #1 or batch #26 a name won't make your beer better or worse. Same with labels, some people get a kick out of them some think they are a giant PITA and a waste of time.

I name all of mine after Seinfeld references, obvious or obscure, though it's mostly just for internal purposes. I rarely hand one to someone else and tell them it's a Low-Talker Brown.

Son of a gun I thought I was totally orginal when I came up with this idea. Being a huge Seinfeld fan I have "Vandelay Industries" brewery with names being inspired from the show. My favorites to date are:
"Not That There's Anything Wrong With That Raspberry Wheat"
"Thirsty Pretzel Pale Ale"
and
"Master of Your Domain Barley Wine"

 

[Turk10mm]

well i plan on making a very big dark beer. something black and beefy. i had a dog years ago, he was an evil soul. damn mean but had more personality than most people i have ever met. He was the dog i grew up with and has been gone 10 years now. He was a 105lb weimerainer. So the name for that beer is already penned. Wolfgang's Black Heart in memory of my beloved evil monster. Only those that knew him could ever understand the name.

 

[howabouttheiris]

I liked the thought of sticking to a theme.

We went with names indicating the effects of consuming too much of the beer (drunk,/sick).... my favorite so far was a roasted oatmeal chocolate stout that we dubbed "Burns on the Whey" Stout.