Coming up with names for home brews?

[golfgod04]

So, for labor day, a relative throws a huge party and my friends and relatives that brew beer always bring their newest beers. Some ofthem bring their beers with labels on it. For the first time, I'll be bringing beer to this party. I am having a hard time coming up with names for my home brews. My friends and I like things with Puns in the name. So I was wondering if anyone could help me come up with fun pun brew names based on animals/birds/lakes in New England (mainly Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts). I'm usually good at coming up with puns but I am having trouble. Any and all suggestions will be appreciated. I am bringing Pale Ales and IPA to the party.

 

[Billy-Klubb]

I take 2 handfuls of mud and mix them with milled grain then throw them up in the air. whatever sound they make when they hit, that's what I name the beer. PAH-tbbt!

 

[watermelon83]

I call mine beer. YMMV

 

[JonM]

Cool names just aren't my thing. I know people who can come up with clever stuff in an instant, but I'm not one of them.

If I was in your position, I'd just call them what they are "Centennial Pale Ale, Columbus/Amarillo IPA, etc," feed a bunch to my buddies and see if an awesome name just comes out of all the revelry.

 

[joe_four_strings]

Use this... http://www.magnificentbastard.com/features/craft-beer-name-generator

 

[Kharnynb]

usually make in-jokes or even pop references, so it usually is hard to name other's beer.

my punk ipa clone is named after the old punk magazine "punk and disorderly", since well beer...

my smash recipies all have hulk pictures and some theme on "hulk smash"

for some beers i've also used my dog's pictures as label/inspiration.

 

[philipCT]

My 12 and 14 year old sons are pretty good at coming up with names if I give them the basic facts. I brewed a presidential honey ale on the Fourth of July, and my 14 year old said "we should call it Liquid Patriot".

 

[Vandulus]

My method for catchy naming is thus:
1) Think about the style I'm making
2) Imagine a picture of what a label would look like for that beer
3) Come up with a name based on that image which is also descriptive
4) Look for puns, rhyming or alliteration in the name

My next two brews are:
Beach Bomber - a coconut/key lime pale ale. I saw a coconut with a lit fuse in it (bomb) on a beach and it's a summertime beer.
Vanilla Gorilla - a vanilla blonde stout. This style intrigues me and I imagined a light color, but heavy bodied milk style stout with vanilla. The heaviness prompted me to think of a gorilla which happens to rhyme nicely with vanilla!

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

I usually don't name beers anything other than what they are (DFH 60 minuite IPA clone, Cottage House Saison, etc).

When I do go for a "name" I try to make it around what the occasion I'm bringing the beer to is. For example, I brought a light Blue Moon clone to the beach one year and called it "Low Tide".

What's the occasion for your party?

 

[Peruvian802]

I usually start with the style or ingredients I'm using and go from there. My thought process goes something like this:

Breakfast stout made with maple syrup and sap>Morning Run (maple trees are said to 'run' when sap is flowing)

Coffee Blonde Ale made with La Amistad beans>Amistad was the name of a slave ship where the slaves revolted (see 1997 Speilberg film)>Mutiny Coffee Blonde Ale

Juicy IPA that makes me think of grapefruit/pineapple>a beach on an island>Hawaii is an island>the state fish of Hawaii > name of beer, Humahumanukanukapua'ale

 

[drainbamage]

I usually go with some play on words based on the ingredients, inside jokes, or a reference to music lyrics or pop culture. Like @Kharnynb said, it can be tough to name other people's beers that way.

 

[unionrdr]

I sometimes paraphrase song names, like my hopped & confused hybrid lagers. Or the color of a pale ale, as in my sunset gold pale ale. I live near Lake Erie in Ohio, the buckeye state. So My Irish red is now buckeye red, & my German Dampfbier ( German for steam beer), is now called Lake Erie Steam. I also look to history with other beers, this time one I used in my first dystopian sci-fi book. I called my whiskely stout (whiskely, or bourbon barrel stout/porter) goes back to colonial times. so I named it Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard's ship, with Blackbeard himself in an etching raising his sword on the label.

Left out the "E" on this version, but you get the idea. You can search with google for images of all sorts, new & old. Lots of ideas out there...

 

[TheCADJockey]

Use this... http://www.magnificentbastard.com/features/craft-beer-name-generator

^ This is pretty stellar.. just wasted ten minutes clicking on it making names, with Molten Mocha Lava Pigeon Position IPA being my favorite.

I'm not very witty naming my beers. I've only made a label for one. If I'm not labeling, I don't care to name it and usually just tell whoever is trying it, what it is as previously mentioned by someone else. If I make something worth making again that becomes a repeatable beer worth having around, I'll think of something stupid to call it.

 

[1977Brewer]

I name mine after Dashboard Confessional songs. Okay just one. I try to throw a musical reference in, but my house IPA is called SonRise because I brewed it on Easter.

 

[m00ps]

I've always enjoyed coming up with beer names. I keep a running list of random phrases I hear that would sound like good beer names. "Bakers Dozen" for a 13% barleywine has been on it for a while for instance. A lot of my beer names are just basically conversation pieces since no one would possibly know what the reference is from since it comes solely from my personal experiences.

The "bird" thing in the Northeast makes me think of when I spent the first half of my life in Vermont and did a lot of camping. I remember one of my favorite shirts had a big mosquito on it and read "Vermont State Bird." May need a label with a picture to accompany that one though.

Here's a list of the name of every beer I've got stashed somewhere around the house. Feel free to borrow or draw inspiration from whatever.
Winnie the Pale Ale American Pale Ale
No Rye More Reason Saison
Sacral IPA
Malt Worm Bitter ESB
Blue Sky Black Death Belgian Strong Dark Ale
Whoppers Stout Milk Stout
Sounds Like Slinkys Tripel
Fruit Loops Hefe Hefeweizen
Coffee Kolsch Kolsch
Dino Skin Saison
Oil Spill Baltic Porter
Falcon Punch Amber Ale
Punkin Pi Ale Pumpkin Ale
Dry Ryrish Stout
Space Boots Black IPA
Funkytown Sour Black Saison
Sunny D-IPA Imperial IPA
Anoxic Dain Bramage Wild Saison
Thousand Yard Stare American Wheat
Flapjack Breakfast Stout Imperial Stout
Mexican Hot Chocolate Milk Stout
Whitest Beer Alive White IPA
Sponge Bath Dubbel
Ace of Spades Saison Black Saison
Reeses Stout Milk Stout
Whipeout Wit Witbier
Rhymes Like Dimes Belgian Strong Ale
Cucumber Mint Saison
Grammy Smiff English Brown Ale
Therapy Session Session IPA
Lazy Eye Porter English Porter
Ninja Nelson Swartzbier
Global Warming Saison
Blind Monk / 3 Blind Monks Black Tripel / Sour Black Tripel
Festivus Holiday Ale Winter Warmer
Scapegoat Weizenbock
Pina Colada IPA IPA
Wild Fellers Wild Ale
All That Glitters Saison
Chai Brown Ale Brown Ale
Accident Prone Saison
Jolly Rancher IPA

 

[golfgod04]

thanks everyone for the tips/advice/suggestions

 

[Brew_G]

I usually start with the style or ingredients I'm using and go from there. My thought process goes something like this:

Breakfast stout made with maple syrup and sap>Morning Run (maple trees are said to 'run' when sap is flowing)

Coffee Blonde Ale made with La Amistad beans>Amistad was the name of a slave ship where the slaves revolted (see 1997 Speilberg film)>Mutiny Coffee Blonde Ale

Juicy IPA that makes me think of grapefruit/pineapple>a beach on an island>Hawaii is an island>the state fish of Hawaii > name of beer, Humahumanukanukapua'ale

When you put Beer + "Morning Run" together, the first thing that comes to my mind is certainly not maple syrup...

 

[muels]

My taps get labeled, "pale ale", "oatmeal stout", "blonde", "IPA". Sometimes I'll throw a hop type or taste in front...centennial blonde, chocolate milk stout, raspberry wheat.
Never really bothered with names, my friends don't care bout my marketing techniques. They just wanna drink good beer. I named a few in the beginning but no one ever used them, they just asked for the style...."got any blonde left?" "The IPA is tasty, can I get another one?"

 

[TheMadKing]

I'm huge on puns so I'm switching to the low fat kind.

 

[hifidelity]

The only beer out of my 16 or so batches that I've bother naming (well...it'll be named as soon as it's out of the fermenter...) is my Maris Otter/ Mosaic SMaSH.

MOMSmash. Get it?

 

[Natdavis777]

I name mine after Dashboard Confessional songs. Okay just one. I try to throw a musical reference in, but my house IPA is called SonRise because I brewed it on Easter.

Lol you dont come off as the "Dashboard" kind.

 

[Natdavis777]

Im a big movie buff, so I like to reference movies I like. My last DIPA was called Johnny Utah, seeing as it was a big, west-coast IPA.

 

[MannyEdwards]

Here are mine, all under the Jig Head Brewing Company label:

Buzzbait Brown - Northern English Brown
Caney Fork Amber - American Amber Ale
Hagfish Helles - Munich Helles
l'Espadon - Biere de Garde
Muskellunge IPA - Imperial IPA
Shannon - Irish Red Ale
Skipjack - Saison
Huchen (HOO-ken) - Hefeweizen
Jackline - Stout
Crankbait - American Pale Ale
Largemouth Lager - American Light Lager

 

[Lakehub]

I playoff the name of my home brewery Lakehub Brewing and use actual lake names.
Lake Cali the imposter- California common not using NB hops.
Lake Nebo- northern English brown.
Ect...

 

[FloppyKnockers]

 

[k1ngl1ves]

So, for labor day, a relative throws a huge party and my friends and relatives that brew beer always bring their newest beers. Some ofthem bring their beers with labels on it. For the first time, I'll be bringing beer to this party. I am having a hard time coming up with names for my home brews. My friends and I like things with Puns in the name. So I was wondering if anyone could help me come up with fun pun brew names based on animals/birds/lakes in New England (mainly Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts). I'm usually good at coming up with puns but I am having trouble. Any and all suggestions will be appreciated. I am bringing Pale Ales and IPA to the party.

Bring a beer that's undercarbbed... Call it the Brady Special. New England fans should loooove that.

 

[Natdavis777]

Bring a beer that's undercarbbed... Call it the Brady Special. New England fans should loooove that.

Haha. Love it!

 

[treacheroustexan]

I suck at names. They usually reference cats or something about Cleveland.

 

[unionrdr]

I used to buy that stuff. It's also used in the game "Deer Avenger" as " human sign". " Wow, looks like they brought the good stuff"!

 

[VApatriot]

Caney Fork Amber - American Amber Ale

I love that one, we used to go canoeing in the Caney Fork when they weren't generating.

I try to come up with names based on things I like or find funny:

Indian Rock Red Ale
Beach Comber Blonde Ale
Pirate Pale Ale
Knock You Down Brown Ale (was a 7% brown)
Susan's Brown Ale - named after the wife who after tasting the first one said "ok these are all mine - you need to brew something else for yourself"

 

[1977Brewer]

Lol you dont come off as the "Dashboard" kind.

I really don't know why, but I really like Dashboard and Jimmy Eat World. Their contemporaries can eat berries. Unintentional rhyme there.

 

[Psylocide]

I really don't know why, but I really like Dashboard and Jimmy Eat World. Their contemporaries can eat berries. Unintentional rhyme there.

Dashboard?

Didn't know you were a 14 year old girl.

 

[m00ps]

Lmao