Trendy, hip, cutesy, beer name rant

[MississippiSlim]

Although I thought all the funny names and all were cool when I first started drinking craft beers and even come up with some silly names for my future brews, I really think the name and marketing is getting more important than the beer.....Maybe its just me but why can't it just be Rogue Ale, Stone IPA, etc. Maybe I just yearn the siomplicity of a brand not some hip name. I mean should Chimay have named thiers "Dubbel Dubbel Toil and Trouble"? NO, they have a brand name and it is the beer not silly names that is needed!

 

[lpdb185]

but it is soooo fun coming up with catchy names. really, i think the most of it is marketing. regardless of how good a brew is, good marketing will go a long way.

 

[Coastarine]

I think it is fun to come up with names like that, but in practice (i.e. my keezer) I prefer to just call the beer by its style and include some background on the style as well as the particular beer. I want the drinker to learn something about the beer. If you don't know the styles, you aren't going to get the punny names. I guess they don't bother me but I can't bring myself to do it with my beers.

 

[MississippiSlim]

I guess I am becoming more of a traditionalist or something. I mean I think alot of the names are cute but from tasting some of the beers I think that maybe they shoulc cut their marketing budget and spend more on brewing. I guess to each his own. I do come up with some silly names myself, though. eg: on dese NUTs BROWN ALE

 

[DavidP]

My sentiments exactly. There's a new brand in WI called "Horny Goat". One beer is called "exposed" while another is "Hopped & Horny". Ugh.

 

[david_42]

When you are selling an undifferentiated product, like massively hopped IIPAs or huge RISs , funny names are all you have to work with.

 

[TexLaw]

A while back, many microbreweries and craft breweries did that. You just had "XXXX Amber" or "XXXX Stout" or "XXXX IPA," etc. Then, Fat Tire came along and took the nation like wildfire. Brewers, who are running a business, found out just how important product names can be in the marketplace.

Just ask Saint Arnold. They could barely give away their "Saint Arnold Kristall Weizen." Then, they changed the name to "Saint Arnold Texas Wheat," and sales went through the roof.

You have to get people to drink the beer. Sometimes, you have to give it a goofy name to get people to try it.


TL

 

[MississippiSlim]

Yeh so when you get down to it the consumer is at fault not the brewery. Just as I thought....the general public is more concerned with presentation over substance! Not a surprise

 

[smizak]

When you are selling an undifferentiated product, like massively hopped IIPAs or huge RISs , funny names are all you have to work with.

Oh snap.

i agree

 

[norwegiangeek]

oh man, I just came up with what I think is a trendy name for my beers a few days ago.

I'm going with Cryptid Brew, based on the root wood of Cryptozoology (the study of animals that can't be proved by science) so all the beers will be based of those. El Chupacabra, Bigfoot, Nessie, jackalope, etc.

Now I just gotta work on a logo...

 

[StunnedMonkey]

Brewers, who are running a business, found out just how important product names can be in the marketplace.

Yeah. I guarantee that "Arrogant Bastard" sells better than Stone American Strong Ale would.

 

[motobrewer]

My sentiments exactly. There's a new brand in WI called "Horny Goat". One beer is called "exposed" while another is "Hopped & Horny". Ugh.

yeah i refuse to try their beer on this premise alone.

clever marketing is one thing, this is going too far.

 

[JKoravos]

A while back, many microbreweries and craft breweries did that. You just had "XXXX Amber" or "XXXX Stout" or "XXXX IPA," etc. Then, Fat Tire came along and took the nation like wildfire. Brewers, who are running a business, found out just how important product names can be in the marketplace.

Just ask Saint Arnold. They could barely give away their "Saint Arnold Kristall Weizen." Then, they changed the name to "Saint Arnold Texas Wheat," and sales went through the roof.

You have to get people to drink the beer. Sometimes, you have to give it a goofy name to get people to try it.


TL

+1

Beer is a retail sales business. Marketing sells product. It's a simple fact of life. Everyone is influenced by it in some way. You may be all hoity toity about your beers names because you're a beer geek, but you're probably buying some other product based on marketing without even realizing it because you don't really care about the merit of the product. Just like some people don't care if a beer is an Alt or a Strong Ale or a Kolsch.

 

[Guinness]

I would guess that this comes from the wine industry, which has gone that way in the last while.

Instead of simply giving the year, appelation, etc, they started applying trendy names, leaning towards insulting. At first there was Fat Bastard and some others. Now there are a lot of new wines named that way. Cat Pee on a Gooseberry Bush, Arrogant Frog, etc.

The names don't bother me, except when they imply something that the product isn't. Hoptical Illusion. Ya, the illusion was that there appeared to be hops in the beer, which there wasn't!

 

[kunstler]

the Name for my home brewery is Diarreah Jones' Brewing.

I named it this because of an actual story - not for gimick.

why is this important? I made T-shirts last year and gave them out to some of my friends who enjoy my beer - it was something that shared and it was an inside joke. I went to the international beer festival here in RI not too long ago and wore the shirt as I thought it would be funny.

I had 3 micro-breweries ask me where I was located and about my "brewery" along with 2 distributors who wanted to know if I had a name of someone they could contact to set up a meeting for potential distribution in RI.

I would smile and look at them and go "Its in my kitchen so its illegal for me to sell it, but I thank you in your interest"

Obviously name goes along way. Honestly all consumer products are based off of name. when you go and buy bleach do you by clorax or store brand. They are both chemically the same....

how many of you shop at a price rite or aldi for your groceries....(or other "off name grocery store)

 

[bonzombiekitty]

Just ask Saint Arnold. They could barely give away their "Saint Arnold Kristall Weizen." Then, they changed the name to "Saint Arnold Texas Wheat," and sales went through the roof.

Same thing happened to Yards brewing way back when, on whim, they made an oyster stout and called it Yards Oyster Stout. One bar was selling it and couldn't give the stuff away. The bar owner asked if he could rename the beer to try and market it better, and Yards gave him permission. He called it Love Stout; he was soon ordering so many kegs that the brewery decided to make it a yearly season brew.

There's still the Love Stout, but I'm not sure if it's still an oyster stout.

 

[buffalobrewer]

we had a bunch of people that went out after work last wednesday and when it was one guy's turn to buy I told him I wanted a dead guy. I actually had to walk him down the bar to look at the taps before he would believe me.

 

[Bullshivit-brew]

I guess when you go to the store you look for that old white label that reads BEER rite? Ya I didn't think so. With all the micro brews on the market now you can't nock them for trying to stand out in the crowd. Simple fact is if people don't try there beer they wont know if its any good, a good name mite just get them to try it. I get you a gimmik dosn't make good beer but it sure helps sale good beer.

 

[davefleck]

Consider the relationship to craft ale and wine. They are far more closly related of a customer then your BMC buyer.

Wine sells by a couple factors. A score by some reviewer and The label. Only one is really controled by the maker.

 

[Nubiwan]

I made an amber ale in time for Paddy's day. I thought a nice cutesy ironic name would be Paddy's Orange.

I registered it on untappd.

Honorable mention goes out to Satans Anus which I think was a beer at one time. Not sure! Can only imagine it was a sour.


Paddys Orange - but in a Green Bottle

 

[Monmouth00]

I don't have so much of a problem with it, as it's a flooded market right now, and smaller breweries have to differentiate the product.

What bothers me is when there's a name and a name only. I see an interesting label and a catchy name, only to pick up the bottle to find there's almost no information about the beer itself. Is it an ale? An amber lager? A blonde? Great, you got my attention, now tell me what it is.

I've always said that if I have a chance to open a brewery, the name of the beer would say something about the ingredients. There are so many different names of malts and hops these days, that there's a seemingly endless number of combinations. You could very easily name each beer something catchy and those "in the know" would immediately know something about it. For example, I just did a blonde ale with mosaic and a lot of Golden Promise (it turned out darker than I imagined- you could call that a Dirty Blonde Promise. Or the Maris Otter/Mosaic SMaSH's name could be Mosaic Otter.

Probably not interesting or original, but it's what I would do.

 

[hotbeer]

I don't quite understand.

If a brewer makes more than one ale, IPA, pilsner and etc, we'd get in trouble real quick if we only named them by the name of the brewer and type of beer.

 

[bracconiere]

i guess i'd have account for distribution and stuff...but i'd call mine the $1 and only $1, 12 pack!

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

Old thread here, but considering it started some 11 or so years ago I kinda agree. Sure market with something to get my attention, I don't mind that, but please give me a description. I dont want to have to open untappd in the beer distributor to find out if I'm gonna like your beer or not. Call your beer squeeky cheese for all I care, just tell me if squeeky cheese is a canadian lager or a belgian tripel.

 

[hotbeer]

Does make you wish there were zombie pop ups or something to alert others that an old thread is being unearthed.

I do typically try to look for the OP date prior to mouthing off. My bad.....

 

[cmac62]

Honorable mention goes out to Satans Anus which I think was a beer at one time. Not sure! Can only imagine it was a sour.

Or a super hot pepper beer like Stones Punishment. Hot going in and coming out. LOL

 

[cmac62]

Stones IPA #1, #2, #3, ETC ETC ETC.................. That would be really boring, and you would really have to work to come up with those pithy writeups they always have. No, Kitchy names are required.

 

[Chuckbergman]

As a professional marketer and homebrewer, I find that half the fun of brewing is naming my beers and designing the label. Although since I started kegging, I've been designing less labels. A few of my favorites: Leprechaun Spit (Irish Red Ale), Reindeer Nutz (Hazelnut Porter), Elf Juice (Christmasy IPA), Summer Citrabration (NEIPA with Citra), Hoppenstein (IPA with a bunch of different leftover hops) and Flatrock River Mud (Chocolate Stout).

I agree with another poster that I like the creative names, but you also need to know the style - what the heck am I about to buy? As an aside, I hate when they don't list the ABV easy to read on the bottle/can.

The biggest problem for professional brewers now is copyrighting the names. It is really difficult to come up with a creative beer name that is not already being used.