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The Value of a Good Beer Name

While the liquid itself will ultimately decide whether customers come back for a second pint, it’s often the style of beer and its name that first get a drinker’s attention.

John Holl Apr 16, 2019 - 11 min read

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Names can be whimsical and funny and offer a sense of place or insight into a brewer’s mind. But what happens when you have to change a beer name or the recipe associated with an established name? We talked with three breweries that confronted different reasons and challenges with changing a beer name or its recipe. They offer their stories, advice, and tips.

Mother’s Brewing Company Materfamilias

“One of the big assumptions right off the bat is that we were capitulating to something or that there were outside pressures, and that’s not the case,” says Kyle Jeffries, the brewery liaison for Mother’s Brewing Company in Springfield, Missouri, when asked about the change the brewery made in rebranding its imperial stout, long known as MILF, to Materfamilias.

“We’ve been aware of how things are changing with the industry and society, and we weren’t moving with the times by having a beer with that name, so this was an internal decision we made after some soul searching.”

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John Holl is the author of Drink Beer, Think Beer: Getting to the Bottom of Every Pint, and has worked for both Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® and All About Beer Magazine.

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