Favorite Brewery Name (2023)

Added inspiration:

 

I remember sometime during the early 1980s at the beginning of the craft era, thinking how odd it was that so few of the new brewery owners were naming their companies after themselves, since that was the dominant naming convention before then. Looking at the 49 breweries listed as still open in 1976 (from The Brewers Digest 1977 Directory):

29 - Named after the founder(s) (often still operated by the family)
12 - City/Town or other geographical regional term (e.g. - Dixie, Genesee)
7 - Flagship brand (e.g. Falstaff, Steam*, Rheingold*, Pearl).
1 - Animal (The Lion*, Wilkes-Barre, PA)

*Notes: The Lion's Lionhead brand did not yet exist, Maytag did not yet own the rights to the Anchor Brewing Co. trademark, Rheingold had long gone by the name Liebmann Breweries or some other variation until sold in the 1960s.

 

Chicago was specifically referred to as "Hog butcher to the world" in the first line of a famous poem about Chicago by Carl Sandberg

 

And, confusingly enough, only about 100 miles southwest (as the crow flies - or, since they're both islands, as the fish swims, I guess) of Dogfish Head, in Southport, Maine.

 

A few craft names associated with owners come to mind:
Hart Brewery (Kalama, WA, "Pyramid" brand)
Cartwright (Portland, OR, spouse maiden name)
Widmer Bros. (Portland, OR)
Buffalo Bill's (Hayward, CA, founder AND animal)
Wm. Newman (Albany, NY)
Yakima Brewing (Yakima, WA, primary brand was "Grant's")
Pavichevich Brewing (Chicago area, "Baderbrau" brand)

 

Looking at the list, I actually drank at least one beer from each of those breweries. I remember Pyramid Pale, original Cartwright Portland Ale, Widmer Pale Bock, Newmans Albany Amber (maybe contract brewed?), Grant's Scottish, and Baderbrau. I had a draft at Buffalo Bills, but don't remember the specific beer.

 

What's the story there? Were they "Steam (Beer) Brewing Company" for a while?

Bell's was the first I thought of, but the practice is certainly not the norm today.

 

Oh, yeah - there were some - just nowhere near the 50-60% in the pre-craft era. Maybe the longest-lived (after Widmer Bros.) is - was?- Bell's, though, oddly, it was originally called Kalamazoo Brewing Co.

Can't say I can recall ever reading what caused the name change. And gotta wonder how many drinkers outside of Michigan know that "Bell" was the founder's name. Bell's also later used "Kalamazoo" as a secondary brand while having a legal conflict with distributors in Illinois.

Yeah, apparently the owner, Charles Coury, had been a partner in an Oregon winery which sold wine under the "Coury" brand, so he picked his wife's maiden name for the brewery. Some suggested that it didn't hurt that Ben, Hoss, Adam and Little Joe shared the last name. And, though it's the literal meaning of the name, the cart they used might have brought to mind the one used on the Ponderosa, too.

Yeah, they never bottled, instead used contract-brewers - F.X. Matt, Walter's/Hibernia and C. Schmidt's & Sons. IIRC, the sudden demise of Schmidt's (brewery closed, brands sold to Heileman) had a negative financial affect on Newman's, contributing to their ultimate closure.

 

Yeah, when Lawrence Steese bought the (temporarily closed) brewery from Joe Allen in 1959, Allen kept the "Anchor Brewing Co." company name and leased the "Anchor Steam Beer" brand name to Steese. Maytag wasn't able to buy "Anchor Brewing Co." until 1977 from Allen's sister. The first bottles of Steam and Porter I ever bought were so-labeled:

Yeah, I thought of it, too, but since we posted at the same time...

 

MacTrail (I believe) and I stopped by Cartwright's one day and talked to Coury, who gave us a poster, still hanging over my desk. Biblical quote on the poster is a bit much.

 

Nobody has probably tried or heard of these breweries, but I think Raised Grain from Wisconsin is a perfect name for a brewery. Also, Free State from Kansas nails it for a Kansas brewery title.

 

IIRC the Brewery is named after Smuttynose Island which was not far from the brewery.

 

I don't know how much that flew under the consumer radar, but perhaps it had a very minor influence on people calling the company Anchor Steam.

 

I tried Brew Gentlemen for the first time this year through Tavour and I can’t get enough of their stuff, so damn good

 

I remember them saying it was Brand Confussion that prompted the name change.

 

I've always thought so - certainly, it was a common "error" in local SF articles even before the brewery became "famous", before bottling, etc. No less than M. Jackson, in his first US ed. of The World Guide to Beer ©1977, did it (pg. 215):

 

Yeah, I’ve found their beers to be very high level across many styles as well. Always look to grab something from them if I pass thru Pittsburg area. Kinda pricy but worth it IMO.

 

If we were voting on these names, that one would get the Michigan vote for the name as well as the quality of their beers. I just visited there the weekend before last. Great brewery!

 

I mean, I think it’s safe to say there’s only one correct answer to best brewery name: