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Some jerk already took your brewery name, so now what?

July 13, 2015Cody Fague and Isaac Arthur

CODO design branding names motorcycle
CODO Design teaches us how to claw, scratch and dig our way to ANOTHER great brand name.

Finding a perfect name can be one of the most frustrating steps of opening a craft brewery. More often than not, that perfect name, the one you’ve been dreaming of, rolling over your tongue and telling friends and family about ever since tasting your first batch of homebrew, has already been taken by some small outfit in the middle of nowhere. Damn.

How is this possible?

Grab a beer, and let’s talk. A while back, we wrote about what goes into a good craft brewery name — things like availability and ownability — big ideas that were reflective of your biggest differentiators. But in that article, we glossed over how to actually get from an initial concept to a final, trademarkable name itself. So, let’s look at some of the thinking and processes that go into finding an original, ownable name in an era of more than 3,000 craft breweries.

So we’re not so abstract here, let’s make up a fun example: You and your partners are all into old motorcycles and have found a perfect brewery location in an old auto shop. You’re opening a small brewpub that focuses on session beers. Brewing session beers isn’t novel, but your cool location and the start of a deeper theme and culture surrounding motorcycles gives us some fun stuff to work with. Using this hypothetical brewery-in-planning as an example, let’s dig in and look at what “buckets” we can explore to find a great brewery name. In no order of importance, let’s explore the following concepts:

Your town’s history

This in and of itself can be a strong concept, so long as another brewery doesn’t open up down the street with a similar story. Was your town supported by a big industry? Was it a frontier town? Who lived/lives there? Is there a landmark (river, statue, building, battle ground, big ball of twine, etc.)? What’s the story behind your town’s name? Since we don’t know where this town is, let’s instead focus on the brewery location itself. An old auto shop dovetails nicely with the motorcycle theme and can already give us an approachable, blue collar vibe.

Quick words/ideas: shop, service center, pit stop, station, tool box, gear box, wrecker, repair, monkey wrench, wrench money, shade tree mechanic, knuckle buster, OEM

Your beer itself

Sessionable, easy going beers evoke names and words that are calming and non threatening. The ultimate goal is to combine ideas that smartly reflect your core messaging, but you don’t need to worry about that at this phase. For now, you’re trying to get out as many related ideas as possible. But, if you can start making connections between ideas at this point, more power to you!

Quick words/ideas: small, light, easy going (easy rider), quaffable, training wheels, on-ramp, starter, converter, spark, water, crisp, “like making love in a canoe”

Motorcycles

Now let’s look at your main differentiator — your group’s love of motorcycles. Let’s start concretely by breaking down the gear and different things that go into the subject. Types of motors. Bike part and components. Type of motorcycles. Historic bikes. Motorcycle clubs (maybe good for creating a brewery culture, but could also be bad due to recent events, or worse, trite — see note at end of article on cultural implications). Tools and mechanic gear.

Maybe we can explore motorcycle lingo and slang? Quick words/ideas: bone shaker, steel horse, colors, rocker, 1 percenter (fun tie in with ABV and session beers), weekend warrior, ape hangers, two-stroke, clutch, OEM, belt drive, big twin, big block, boneyard, brain bucket, bronson rock, canyon carving, chain, valve, cog, chaps (woo hoo!), cut, crash bar, drag bars, flat head, flywheel, gearbox, inline 6, ink, iron butt, iron head, lane splitting, monkey wrench, nomad, organ donor, shovel head

In a real project, we would repeat this exercise several times, gathering thousands of words and concepts. The goal is to get a lot of raw material to work with so we can whittle down to the very best. Skipping ahead, let’s either take some of these words wholesale, or combine them with other concepts to see what we can come up with.

Pull some cool bike words from the batch we came up with above. Trust your gut on these and grab anything that sounds cool and feels right: bone shaker, canyon carver, bronson rock, big block, cHOP shop (eh?), flywheel, clutch, iron head, monkey wrench, nomad

Session + Bikes. Maybe something along the lines of a starter bike: 250 club, 250 CC, 2 banger, 2 stroke, low rocker, easy rider, 1 percenter, glide, Sunday rider, fair weather rider, training wheels, sissy bars, tassels (woo hoo!)

Google these words in conjunction with industry terms. Example: “Bone Shaker” + “brewing” “beer” “alcohol” “food” “wine,” etc. You want so make sure, at this step, that you’re clear from competing names.

Now here’s where the frustrating part happens. “Bone Shaker” immediately shows as a beer name and a bar. Damn. There’s a Carver Brewing Co. And there are several breweries with Canyon as a part of their name (not a complete deal breaker, but it’s not 100 percent differentiated and ownable, either). Surprisingly, there’s a “Bronson Rock” bar. Big Block, Flywheel, Iron Head, Monkey Wrench and Nomad are all either beer or brewery names. “Clutch” is a New Belgium Brewing Co. beer. “2 Banger” might be too similar to Banger Brewing, and 2 Stroke is a beer by Motorworks Brewing (great name!)

(Click “Next” to continue reading the story.)

Pages: Page 1 Page 2

April-Fools CoDO Insert hop pun
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2022 Beer Branding Trends Part 2: Beyond Beer
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. KCHopTalk says

    July 16, 2015 at 12:11 pm

    Some jerk already took your brewery name, so now what? http://t.co/Y1XRQXgoFH

    Log in to Reply
  2. BeerLawCenter says

    July 15, 2015 at 6:05 pm

    How to rethink your craft brewery’s name and brands http://t.co/RlzFnkeTVu @CraftBrewingBiz

    Log in to Reply
  3. RegnierIns says

    July 15, 2015 at 5:29 pm

    How to rethink your #craftbrewery’s name and brands #craftbeer http://t.co/KOEBRseHI1 via @craftbrewingbiz http://t.co/M83aAh9hQ2

    Log in to Reply
  4. bkaider says

    July 15, 2015 at 4:12 pm

    How to name your craft brewery – narrow down to 3-4 names then call your #trademark lawyer (me) http://t.co/2nnPZNiFsX #craftbeer

    Log in to Reply
  5. KneelJBrown says

    July 15, 2015 at 3:11 pm

    @CODODesign @CraftBrewingBiz Crotch Rocket Brewery

    Log in to Reply
  6. CODODesign says

    July 15, 2015 at 3:10 pm

    How would you name a #motorcycle themed #craft #brewery? Find out on @CraftBrewingBiz

    http://t.co/kaD6aDzCnY

    Log in to Reply
  7. MeasuredMethods says

    July 15, 2015 at 3:09 pm

    How to rethink your craft brewery’s name and brands http://t.co/LCTcNvqGE3 via @craftbrewingbiz

    Log in to Reply
  8. Dale Alan says

    July 14, 2015 at 1:12 pm

    Ian Crotzer food for thought

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  9. Robert Lloyd Moreland says

    July 14, 2015 at 10:22 am

    Robert Lloyd Moreland liked this on Facebook.

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  10. Steven Williams says

    July 14, 2015 at 10:22 am

    Steven Williams liked this on Facebook.

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  11. Gustavo Stentzler Garcia de Lima says

    July 13, 2015 at 10:07 pm

    Gustavo Stentzler Garcia de Lima liked this on Facebook.

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  12. WBY_Beer says

    July 13, 2015 at 4:31 pm

    Cool ideas for naming a brewery! Along with a bit of legal advice… http://t.co/wQVkncagIR

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  13. CODODesign says

    July 13, 2015 at 2:42 pm

    RT @CraftBrewingBiz: Some clueless loser already has your brewery name, so what do you do now? We ask @CODODesign http://t.co/XjMKQrBEux

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  14. Jared Read says

    July 13, 2015 at 2:36 pm

    Jared Read liked this on Facebook.

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  15. Isaac Arthur says

    July 13, 2015 at 2:36 pm

    Isaac Arthur liked this on Facebook.

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  16. Enrique Zuleta says

    July 13, 2015 at 2:36 pm

    Enrique Zuleta liked this on Facebook.

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  17. Effypop says

    July 13, 2015 at 2:36 pm

    Effypop liked this on Facebook.

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  18. crsimp01 says

    July 13, 2015 at 2:33 pm

    How to rethink your craft brewery’s name and brands http://t.co/iFdJVUbdAk via @craftbrewingbiz

    Log in to Reply
  19. craftbangkok says

    July 13, 2015 at 1:36 pm

    Some jerk already took your brewery name, so now what? http://t.co/56m9sIqOcw

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