What's In A Name

You’re starting a new brewery and you have an interesting and unique concept. What should you call it? Let’s look at some interesting names:

• Orions Belte Brewing Company
• Hold Steady Brewing
• Rubblebucket Brew Lab
• Crystal Casino Brewery
• Colony House Beer Company
• Giant Rooks Brew Project

I had a thought one evening while attending a concert in Washington, DC: breweries can do better with combining their names with the stories behind why they exist in the world. I had that thought at a concert because all of those examples above are actually band names. How clever of me. (Clearly I’ve been sitting on this thought for months now.)

THE (LEGAL) TAIL WAGGING (THE SOUL OF) THE DOG

If Candice taught me nothing else, it’s that the first thing you do after creating a list of potential brewery names is to filter through the basis of trademarking: whether existing marks are filed with the USPTO and how likely it is you can trademark it in the first place. That sounds a little soulless but you’ll thank yourself later if/when an existing brewery decides to come after you. Federal court is a lot better place to be than your local courthouse, and that fact alone serves as a deterrent to litigation. Ok, that is soulless.

But I think what happens is it’s so difficult to find a new, unique name that also fits from a trademark perspective that the Rubblebuckets and Giant Rooks of the world end up settling for a name that works to open the doors but doesn’t really fit their origin story. And that’s a shame given it’s so important to underscore personality throughout a business that is in fact so personal.

We’re holding out on our customers by obscuring our story (and no, customers aren’t digging for the story button on your website). The more we thread our story in our concept, the easier it is for our customers to spread the word themselves.

EXPLORATION THROUGH FERMENTATION

My wife and I move around the world for work. Our gateway to experiencing the local culture is through food and beverage, and beer is a fascinating global beverage. The folks at Nat Geo can explain this better than me; however, that fact combined with continually experiencing new cultures led us to the concept of Lost Nomad Brewing Company.

We have been nomads for much of our professional careers and will do so for the foreseeable future–which is fantastic since every new place adds to our story. It’s an exciting prospect for a nomadic pop-up brewery: new ingredients, new challenges sourcing them, and showcasing both the breadth of differences and similarities in beer styles based on the culture that brewed them.

The idea of exploring new places and meeting new people through craft beer resonates with our story and we think with others as well. The restless adventurer, sitting in front of their laptop at work thinking about their next trip overseas will find inspiration at Lost Nomad. Throw out the map and get lost.

Beer is a highly personal business and we should make it easy for our customers to know why we exist. We’re excited to share our story and kick off the next chapter here in West Africa.