Rebranding a Beer

IIRC DFH are rebranding their entire line up. Adding the "Dark IPA" may be in response to complaints from people feeling they weren't getting a brown ale because it was well hopped.

Victory has recently rebranded most or all of their line up.

Troeg's has recently rebranded their line up, including packaging in 12 packs and cases.

 

Great Lakes and Bell's have recently revamped their labeling as well, both in a positive way IMO

 

Just a few more nails in the IPA coffin.

 

and how is that?

 

I know Boulevard renamed/rebranded a few of their beers a few years ago.

 

The term IPA no longer designates a "style" to a lot of breweries, instead it's used as a shorthand flavor descriptor indicating that the beer tastes "hoppy" Hence you get "Black IPA, Belgian IPA, White (wheat) IPA, Cascadian IPA, Brown IPA,,,, whatever. Even when the term is used alone you can't be sure what the beer tastes like, just take the newfangled Eastern "IPA" and compare it to another IPA like an "English" IPA The two tastes almost nothing alike. The term IPA as a "style" is dead.

 

It probably ceased to be a style a very long time ago.Even when it was being shipped to India domestic "IPAs" were being brewed. After WW1 IPA was just another name for Bitter and this continues to this day in such beers as Greene King IPA.
Some badly informed writers say this isn't an IPA because it isn't hopped to hell but in fact it's simply a 20th century example of its type.

 

Lots of breweries rebrand, great Lakes, troegs, goose island, ommegang. Why do they do this? Is sells more beer. It catches customer's eye and gets them to buy.

 

IMO it is simply just another indication that language/terminology evolves over time. Some BA may feel the need to complain about this but it is what it is.

The only constant is change.

Cheers!

 

Off top of the head, this is all I can think of:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/458/82807/

Real Ale's Fireman's #4 Squared

It has the same name it was originally branded with, but my memory is that the labels originally called it a dry-hopped version of Fireman's #4, which is a blonde ale. Somewhere along the way, Real Ale replaced "blonde" with "pale" on the labels. That's my memory, anyway, which isn't always 100%, but if I've got it right it fits in with Dogfish head's adding "IPA" to their brown ale label -- a movement always to something that fits in the IPA hungry market.

 

If DFH Indian Brown was initially released as a "dark IPA," I wonder how it would have been categorized on this website (not to mention how that alters ratings and reviews... this beer is currently the 12th highest rated American brown). I don't think the answer is obvious. The current Dogfish website has it's "style" listed as a "dark IPA."

 

In the UK it is rare to find a beer labelled "mild" , practically all milds are called "darks" these days. Or just given a fancy name.

 

I can see why they'd call it a dark IPA. It's definitely really hoppy for a brown ale, I am pretty sure it's classified as a hybrid between a brown ale, scotch ale, and an IPA and I feel that's accurate.

 

If simple rebranding will bring back some tried and true recipes I say go for it.

 

Two that have not been mentioned yet.
Have you seen how InBev has completely restyled all marketing including graphics for Blue Point?In CT, Cavalry Brewing changed not only their logos and such, changed their name to Black Hog, like Cavalry never existed. It did not improve their beer.

 

If I recall what the story behind the DFH Indian Brown was, and has been. The name itself was a riff on the fact that it was a brown ale that was hopped like an IPA.

 

I wouldn't go so far as to say it's dead, but I definitely get where you're coming from. At some point IPA will just be another way of saying hoppy. Why something can't be called a hoppy brown ale instead of a brown IPA I'm not sure. It's all about marketing I guess.

 

And no doubt there were plenty of slow-on-the-uptake folk like me who, upon first tasting it, thought WTF before slooooooowly realizing that... oh yeah... "Indian"... like India Pale Ale... like, wow. First surprise, then embarrassment.

I hope Dogfish Head's rebranding will protect people from living through this confusing, humiliating experience themselves.

 

Kind of like a martini. Whatever, we are living in a golden age for beer drinkers, enjoy it.