TOP FIVE BEERS # 4 | “Top Five Beer Names”
A lot of breweries try to be creative when naming their beers, but unfortunately they seem to fail more times than not. Marketing is certainly one of the most important elements of selling a product, and humor seems to win people over as much as great packaging. Consider IPAs themselves; the names of these beers have been bastardized so many times that people practically don’t care anymore. However, there are some truly great beer names out there that I think are effective in making you laugh repeatedly. Here are five that I found to be extremely funny. And believe it or not, they are not all IPAs.
# 1 Smells Like Weed IPA
Dark Horse Brewing
American IPA
It’s no secret that hops and cannabis are close relatives. I’d venture to say it’s a part of the reason why so many people love the big IPAs on the market. There are many of these beers in the style that have a very resinous citrus and pine aroma. I commonly refer to this element of the beer as being “dank.” Well now you know why. In the last five years, breweries have been going bigger and stronger by using truly great hop styles like citra, centennial, and simcoe to give their beers the maximum weed-like character. Though I have never had the Smells Like Weed IPA, I can imagine that it probably smells and tastes just like its name. And with a name as direct as this, how can you deny the fact that its just the funniest out there?
# 2 Nut Sack Ale
Boulevard Brewing
Winter Warmer
Boulevard Brewing has quickly become one of the most amazing breweries out there. They tend to love playing off of local celebrities like George Brett (Saison Brett) and local foodstuffs like BBQ (Bourbon Barrel Quad) to name their beers. They have shown that it’s not just the beer that’s good, but that the creativity is also present. In addition to a fair share of one-off beers that never see bottling, they also have a pretty substantial number of seasonal releases. After their seasonal Nutcracker Ale is made, they remove the huge hop sacks from the tanks and squeeze them to extract any remaining beer. Hence the name Nut Sack. From what I’ve been told this yields a pretty small quantity of amazingly hoppy beer. The few lucky people who get to try it also say it’s a real treat. While I’ve never had the luxury of trying the beer myself, I’ve admittedly laughed at the name numerous times.
# 3 Badonk-a-Dunkel
Port Brewing/Pizza Port
Dunkelweizen
Southern California brewery Port Brewing/Pizza Port knows a thing or two about beer; especially hoppy IPAs and big Stouts. But a Dunkleweizen? That seems like an odd style for the brewery. Oh well…who doesn’t like a good Dunkelweizen? Hell…who doesn’t like a good badonkadonk? If you don’t know what that means, quickly head on over to urbandictionary.com and get yourself up to speed. Apparently Port Brewing loves both and was excited enough to combine the two for one of their releases. It appears to have been a one-time only release because less than a handful of people have ever written about it. But that’s really not the point of this article now is it?
# 4 Haulin’ Oats
Redhook Ale Brewery
Oatmeal Stout
In a recent conversation I stated to a friend that Hall & Oates practically owned the ‘80s. I can name you at least ten of their songs off the top of my head that are still amazing today. Aside from maybe Madonna or Michael Jackson, no one had more hits than these guys. Being a product of the ‘80s myself, I still consider them one of my favorite duos. So I suppose this name just makes sense then. Haulin‘ Oats is the name of Redhook’s Oatmeal Stout. Like many of the beers on this list, it has not received a proper bottling release so very few people have had it. Philadelphia is not only home to one of the best beer markets in the country, but it’s surely got its fair share of H20 fans and this one would probably be pretty damn successful there.
# 5 Chocolate Camaro
Half Acre Beer
Milk/Sweet Stout
While they may not be as cool today as they were when I was a kid, the Camaro is a car that people generally have a love-hate relationship with. They’re loud and fast, but also represent a very specific type of car lover (or ‘90s metal head). Creative Chicago brewery Half Acre clearly loves the Camaro as much as the next guy because they’ve named one of their Milk Stouts after it. In addition to Chocolate Camaro sounding like an early Prince song that never saw the light of day, this one too has never been bottled. Seems to be a recurring theme on this list. But when it comes to clever and funny names, I just had to put this one on the list.
Posted by Jon on April 8, 2011 at 10:36 AM
Mark, I don’t believe the Badonk-a-Dunkel is a one time brew. Also, it is made by Pizza Port, not Port Brewing. (A lot of the same owners, but run separately.) Pizza Port only in house brews just don’t get rated like those that they bottle with Port Brewing.
Posted by thehopry on April 9, 2011 at 9:39 AM
I updated it to reflect Port/Pizza Port as it was listed on BA. Thanks for the heads up.
Posted by Jon on April 9, 2011 at 12:02 PM
Ah, I see that BA has them grouped together. It gets very confusing, but basically if it comes in bottles that is Port Brewing doing the brewing. If it is a Pizza Port beer that doesn’t come in bottles, that was brewed by the on site staff at one of the four locations. (Not Tomme and team.) And Pizza Port brews a ton of different beer that they usually give fun names. I’m a fan of the names Skid Mark, None the Weisser and their Brown Bag Malt Liquor. (Also had their Doubbelicious last night and the beer smelled like bubblegum.)
Posted by theReaper16 on April 8, 2011 at 10:57 AM
Three of my favorite beer names:
Boss Tom’s Golden Bock: what a genius, clever name from Boulevard. Bock = goat, Goat = Tom Perdergast’s political faction, Tom Pendergast being one of the most important figures in the history of Kansas City. Genius.
So Fresh and So Green Green: Sweetwater’s fresh-hop ale that they debuted last year. Sweetwater brews where OutKast is from, so the reference makes perfect sense.
Five Point Palm Exploding Hop Technique: this was a one-off (?) brew from 75th Street Brewery. Gotta’ love the Kill Bill reference.
Posted by thehopry on April 9, 2011 at 9:40 AM
Hahaha…love the So Fresh and So Green Green.
Posted by Lyndon on April 8, 2011 at 5:15 PM
Some good ones in Canada from Great Lakes Brewing:
Do these pants make me look Hefe
Does this Muumuu Make me Look Hefe
Dude Where’s My Tsar Russian Imperial Stout
Miami Weisse
Harry Porter and the Bourbon Soaked Vanilla Beans Porter
Heavy Petting Saison
The Dalai Lambic Wild Ale
Most of these are limited runs I believe. Tried a few of them at BarVolo… none of them have over 10 ratings on RateBeer. They also have Great Lakes Brewing Devils Pale Ale, which is pretty popular. On the can it lists:
The Devil Made Me brew it!
666 Kilograms of malt
6.66 kilograms of hops
66.6 minutes of boiling
6% alc/vol.
6..6.06 date of conception
We’ve also got Dieu du Ciel Fumisterie which is made with hemp seeds… doesn’t nearly compare to “Smells Like Weed”
Posted by thehopry on April 8, 2011 at 11:31 PM
Ha! Miami Weisse would have easily made this list if I’d known about it. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by Lyndon on April 9, 2011 at 2:16 AM
How’d you market your beer if you had your own brewery? Theme? Bottle/Label Design & special features? Was pretty amazed with some of the bottles in your “5 beers with amazing artwork”…
I’ve always been a fan of breweries that make an effort to have some sort of theme going on between their bottles. I’d probably also want to have 750ml corked bottles w/ wax as much as possible. preferably coinciding with the bottling date.I’d probably also offer 330ml bottles of the more popular brews.
Beer probably has some of the most unique and interesting marketing….anything from “smells like weed”, Dark Lord Day, branded yard glasses to a Westvletern brewed by a bunch of monks.
Posted by Bob From Indy on April 11, 2011 at 7:00 PM
No Hangin’ Frank? haha
Posted by thehopry on April 12, 2011 at 2:21 PM
Not familiar with it. What is it?
Posted by Matt on April 12, 2011 at 11:47 AM
Regarding Boulevard… you’re a little off on the Saison-Brett being named after George Brett. That’s more of a happy coincidence than playing of our famous athlete resident. From Boulevard’s site “Saison-Brett, based on our very popular Tank 7, is assertively dry hopped, then bottle conditioned with various yeasts, including Brettanomyces, a wild strain that imparts a distinctive earthy quality.”
It’s named after the yeast, not the player. However, they’re both good at what they do… playing baseball and making tasty beer.
Keeping on pace with Blvd, the Nut Sack Ale is amazing. It’s a hop explosion in your mouth. They typically get about 12-15 cornies out of it and keep it for the employees and as a special feature in their tasting room. As it was explained to me by the employees, they actually just let the sacks drip for a few days versus squeezing them… I would imagine that squeezing them would release a bitterer flavor than what the beer features. I got to enjoy a couple glasses of it last October at a special Beer School they hosted. I wish they’d bottle it. Words don’t do it justice.
Posted by thehopry on April 12, 2011 at 12:36 PM
Hey Matt – Completely aware of the play off the brettanomyces yeast. I was just saying… And I would definitely love to try the Nut Sack at some point. We can never have enough Nut Sack in our lives… ha!
Posted by Matt on April 12, 2011 at 12:52 PM
Fair enough… I guess the way I read it made it sound as if George was the specific reasoning for its name.
Posted by thehopry on April 12, 2011 at 1:44 PM
No worries man. I probably just assumed (being from KC) that people knew there was brett in the beer not realizing that everyone in the world is probably not familiar. Either way, appreciate the comments. Cheers!
Posted by Bob From Indy on April 12, 2011 at 4:52 PM
Hangin Frank is (or was?) an IPA by Short’s. Label featured a guy hanging hiself. I think they quit making it, or changed the name or something like that. Can’t remember
Posted by Bob From Indy on April 12, 2011 at 4:55 PM
http://www.brewbound.com/top-features/2011-3-8-controversial_artwork_leads_to_change/
Posted by Bob From Indy on April 12, 2011 at 4:58 PM
Guess they are changing it