About a two hour drive from Frankfurt, Germany, one can find themselves in a region that has some of the softest water available used to brew pilsners. And three of the world’s best are from here: Warsteiner, Veltins, and Krombacher. These breweries are all located close to each other, in fact, it is only about 20 miles from Warstein to Meschede (Veltins),and not much further to Krombach. Warsteiner was named after the town it is from, Warstein; as is Krombacher, after the town of Krombach. German beers are named after the town in which the brewery is located, or after the family that created it, such as Veltins.
As we all know, this was standard with all the German brewers who came to the US in the mid 1800’s: Adolph Coors, Frederick Miller, Frederick Pabst, Joseph Schlitz and, of course, Adolphus Busch, to name a few. Then breweries named their beers after themselves: Coors, Miller, Schlitz, Pabst and Budweiser (Busch). As time went on they came with other beers named after someone, “Herman Joseph,” and “George Killian’” along with Leinenkugel named after Jacob Leinenkugel.
The breweries used their founders as part of their marketing by emphasizing their founders’ heritage and history. It added to the overall ambiance of the brand. No one did this better then AB.
By the mid 1900’s, a number of regionals had been established, and many of these brands used names that were regional, tying the brand locally to build an emotional connection. Lone Star and Pearl beer in Texas; Rainer and Olympia in Washington; tying them into the mountains. And others like: Jax and Dixie in New Orleans playing on that heritage; and Grainbelt in the mid-west. There are many other examples of both breweries and brands, now long gone.
The early craft beers also followed this line of naming their brands. It started with Boston Brewing naming it’s flagship: Sam Adams Boston Lager; then breweries like Sierra Nevada and Alaska were named after mountains and states. Their brands reflected these names too, such as Anchor Steam, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and Alaskan Smoked Porter.
In recent years the names of these new breweries have come from all sorts of places and directions. Some have a solid strategy behind the name. One brewer in Dallas, named the brewery after himself, similar to what the Germans do, with the thought that any reference to a Dallas name, such as a street or area, would have a negative impact on future sales in Austin. In the meantime, any beer from Austin has a positive image in Dallas so it works both ways.
Recently, a former collegue who had been with Gambrinus, stated that he found that the six-pack carrier needed to be specific on identifying the liquid. He found a number of people did not know what IPA stood for, but when it was spelled out, India Pale Ale, then they bought the six-pack. The carton has to tell a story as consumers are spending more time in the beer section then any other department in grocery chains.
Street names and area codes seem to be the current rage in naming brands, like 312 or 512. In fact, ABI has licensed a number of area codes for potential brands. Just like the new Shiner seasonal named after the highway through town, FM 966 Farmhouse Ale. Now doesn’t that just tell you all about the brand?
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