Pliny the Elder, Heady Topper, Atrial Rubicite, Black Tuesday — you may not have ever tried these beers, but most craft beer enthusiasts have probably heard their names. A beer’s moniker can be quirky like one of these examples or it can be simple such as Arthur or 512 IPA.
So, what goes into naming a brew? We reached out to Carl Meier, founder of The Black Abbey Brewing Company in Nashville, Chad Henderson, head brewer at NoDa Brewing Company in Charlotte, Francesca Dreith, Media Director for Funkwerks in Fort Collins, and Scott Metzger, Founder and CEO of Freetail Brewing Co. in San Antonio to get the lowdown.
How do you come up with the names of your beers?
Carl Meier: We try to give our beers names that are clever and reflective of our brand personality. The Black Abbey is named for the monastery where Martin Luther wrote his 95 Theses. Luther and his wife, Katherine, occupied the monastery as their personal residence and Katherine brewed beer there, mainly abbey-style ales. Our beer names reflect that history. For instance, The Rose is named for a component of Luther’s personal crest.
Chad Henderson: There isn’t really a set formula or practice when naming our NoDa beers. Some breweries try to stick to a theme or name all the brews after a cultural genre that usually fits into the brewery name. At NoDa, we don’t have anything like that, so each beer is named on its own based on the style, intent or the circumstances surrounding the brew. Sometimes the name may just ring really well or it’s a concept we can easily work the name NoDa into, such as NoDaRyeZ’d, or it could be a good old hop pun such as Hop Drop ’n’ Roll. Sometimes the names just come to me or another brewer, or we have a big group discussion regarding potential names. It really is case dependent.
Francesca Dreith: Picking a name for a beer can be a difficult process. Some of the time our names are inspired by the beer itself or the backstory behind the brew, but some of the time it is inspired by our quirky beer pairings (“pairs well with jazz hands”). For example, Trust Fall was an experimental brew that production had collaborated on the recipe. In honor of the collaborative effort from our staff, we named it Trust Fall, a common team building exercise, and said that it “Pairs well with Workman’s Comp.”
Once you have a name, you need to research to see if a certain name has been taken, to avoid a cease and desist. Because so many names are already taken, we occasionally make up words for beer names, such as Solenna and Mokra. Just for fun.
Scott Metzger: Depends. Sometimes, we’ll think of a name right away when we’re thinking of a concept and it’s super easy. Most of the time it’s more of an arduous process than we’d like. There are some beers that it’s been a chore and we spend a lot of time going back and forth—eventually, landing on one that everyone is happy with. I wish we had an easy to replicate process.
We don’t look at it and say “is this a ‘Freetail name’?’ or anything like that. We explore and decide on names that fit. It’s a hodgepodge of things. “Hodgepodge” is on brand.
Do you have a list of names ready to go or do you wait until after you brew the beer?
Carl Meier: Our year-round beers were named long ago while we were still brewing at home. Some of our seasonal beers had names before they were brewed (5 Points IPA, for example) and others were named later. Jude was named as we were loading the beer into the van to deliver it for the first time!
Chad Henderson: Sometimes the name comes first and then the beer or vice versa. I do have some names I wait to apply to brews, but it’s usually an overall concept of the beer first and then the identity and name flesh out. At NoDa, I make a new small batch every Tuesday, each one with a unique style and name, so my name bank gets pretty spent over time.
Francesca Dreith: We have a list of beer names, however, we usually come up with a new name because the beer itself inspires the name and pairing. However, we do have a running list of pairings…. Some of which should never be used, such as “pairs poorly with a dutch oven… but so does everything else.”
Scott Metzger: Usually the latter. We sometimes have a list—good example, “Poppin’ Pils” was something we thought would be a good name and we finally got around to it. More often it’s the case of coming up with the beer and then, figuring out the name for it.
What’s your favorite beer name, or what’s the best one you’ve heard?
Carl Meier: There are so many great beer names (and so many terrible ones!). It’s hard to pick a favorite, really. I like Restraining Order Porter from Jailhouse Brewing, Emergency Drinking Beer from Wild Heaven and Why Can’t IBU from Stillwater. I think those are solid and fun.
Chad Henderson: I really like epic or “heavy” sounding names, because I’m a metal head. Probably my favorite is Dark Lord — nothing sounds more epic than that. I do love clever puns and such, but it’s hard to beat a name that was also a title for Darth Vader.
Francesca Dreith: Mr. Delicious by Equinox is a beer name I’ve always liked. I love the personification of a taste. Fresh Squeezed by Deschutes is another name I really enjoy because of the visual the name brings to mind.
Scott Metzger: There’s one name in particular that when they rolled out with this beer, I thought “why didn’t I think of that first?” It’s not super creative, it’s just the perfect name: Austin Pearl Snap. It truly is, for being the beer it is and being here in Texas, the perfect name. I’m shocked that no one had it before.
Thanks to Carl, Chad, Francesca, and Scott for their time. Visit the Black Abbey, NoDa, Funkwerks, and Freetail websites to learn more about their breweries, or stop by your local Flying Saucer and enjoy one of their beers for yourself!
