Brewery & Beer Name References

Interesting. I had heard "steam" was a name for beers brewed with lager yeasts at ale temps. I think that came from an extract kit that I brewed back in the 90's that was supposed to be an anchor steam clone.

 

Even though I'm boycotting them, Horseheads Brewing has named several of their beers after local interests:

Sullivan Stout, Expedition Pale Ale, Newtown Brown, and Iroquois Wheat: commemorate the Sullivan Expedition of 1779 which culminated in the Battle of Newtown (just outside of Elmira) where the Americans defeated a force of English and Iroquois soldiers.

Brickyard Red: In the mid 1800s, Horseheads was home to one of the largest brick manufacturers in NY.

Chemung Canal Towpath: The Chemung Canal was a 23-mile canal between Seneca Lake at Watkins Glen and the Chemung River. The towpath was the road where the horses who pulled the boats were.

 

Shock Top was originally a spring seasonal with the unfortunate name of "Spring Heat Spiced Wheat".

A 'Shock' or a 'Stook' of wheat (or any other grain) is a collection of grain set out to dry in the field. Therefore, "Shock Top" refers to the Mohawk-like hair on top of the Orange's head on the label and tap handle.

 

We have a good, up & coming brewery here in the Twin Cities which must have been founded by an engineer - my own profession. Tin Whiskers Brewing features, in no particular order, names for their beers which show a fine knowledge of state-of-the-art electrical engineering terms circa about 1920.

Flip Switch IPA
Wheatstone Bridge
Ampere Amber
Watts Wheat
Short Circuit Stout

You get the idea...

 

Wicked Weed is from the story of Henry VI's reference to hops....probably a myth

 

Brown note?

 

Sam Adams was the name of a club promoter that Jim Koch knew in Boston around the time he founded his brewery. He told Jim Koch that he'd get him into nightclubs for free if Koch named his company after him. Koch, being very much into that scene at the time, agreed.

 

Budweiser is named after a real guy who definitely wasn't a fad and loved giant cheeseburgers. Later in life, due to his disdain for little people trying to challenge his authority, he changed his name to America.

 

Perhaps I'm missing the "joke" here, but gotta a legitimate citation on that claim?

 

Rushing Duck, in Chester NY, is named after what brewmaster Dan Hitchcock's grandfather and crew called it when one of the crew went for a bucket of beer to bring back to the job site. Rushing the duck they called it.

Always assumed Terrapin was one of the breweries started by a Deadhead. Interested to find out if that is true?

Captain Lawrence is the road on which brewmaster Scott Vaccaro's boyhood home was located

Mill House Brewpub is named after the famous and long closed restaurant Mill House Panda that was in the same location.

Plan Bee is named after brewmaster Evan Watson's love of raising bees and using the honey in his beer.

 

Most of these other posts don't have citations, why you pickin' on me??

And no I don't, it's just something Jim Koch confided at me when we were at a rave.

 

Great book.

Raleigh Brewing Company's Hidden Pipe Porter refers to a (still practiced) method of securing one's valuables:

Source

The money is long-gone, but the building is still there.

 

There's a brewery in Seattle named after 2 Ronnie James Dio songs, Holy Mountain.

 

Cincinnati's Rhinegeist, which translates to "Ghost of the Rhine", is a tribute to the city's Over-The-Rhine (OTR) neighborhood. OTR was once, pre-prohibition, one of the country's largest brewing centers. It is now experiencing a beer renaissance and is rising from the dead, blighted area it was just a decade ago.

 

Haha funny tale on that label. While reading it I thought what a strange story, I wonder if these guys dose? Then I read the name of the brewery again.
Birdsong

 

Smuttynose is named after Smuttynose Island...whoopee...but Smuttynose Island is named as such because of the seaweed which sailors described as the smutty nose of some vast sea creature. Besides being involved in the typical pirate stories of a coastal island, the island does have some additional grisly history (big link below):

No authoritative anthology of New England crime would fail to include the truly ghastly murders on Smuttynose Island (Isles of Shoals) the morning of March 6, 1873. If you’ve never heard the tale, and aren’t particularly squeamish, then read on…

Then we have all the Narragansett beers which link to Rhode Island iconography - the Del's Lemonade Shandy, Allie's Donut, Autocrat Coffee (that'd be cawfee if you are a native), and of course the HP Lovecraft series.

A Massachuetts brewery I never heard of - Kretschmann Brewing:

The Kretschmann name and moon man of our logo originated with our family name and crest. As the name means “innkeeper”, the moon man in the family crest would have indicated a place to safely spend the night long ago.

Mystic Brewery in MA also tends to link things with local history - their Aurbach's Rauchbier is named after legendary Coach Red Auerbach who smoked stogies after Celtics b-ball victories; Day of Doom (the great molasses flood IIRC); Orange Dinosaur refers to the huge orange dinosaur on Rt. 1; Three Cranes refers to cranberry flowers as the blooms resemble the heads of those birds. There was a story behind Descendent as well, but I will have to dust off the bottles in my cellar. They seem to have gotten away from this cool trend lately though.

Allegedly - and while interesting there's nothing absolutely solid supporting this - 668 Neighbor of the Beast is an homage to The Duvel as it is brewed in the style of and closely resembles that evil presence which took over WBAYDN airwaves this past Saturday. The font is also shared with an Iron Maiden album cover.

 

A couple that are pretty well known:

Mikkeller = "Mikkel" Bjorg Bjergso and Krsitian "Keller" 's names combined. Homebrew buddies.

The Bruery = Founders name Patirck "Rue" .

 

Avery - Callipygian, that is a word derived from old Greek, that basically means "Nice Ass"