Beer Branding & Descriptions

As a craft brewer, and creative writer, I’m often called on to write about the beer I make.

A good beer description takes on two important roles. First, it’s a menu item. The description is here to provide information and expectations, directing drinkers towards the beers they’ll enjoy.

It’s also a piece of the brewery’s overall marketing strategy, and an excellent opportunity to speak to the target audience. It should build the brand and establish connections. Sometimes there’s room for a joke, or a story, or a character. There’s always room to welcome people.

Here are a few of my favorite beer descriptions, from some of my best recipes.

Harrison St. Wheat – Hefeweizen – 4.8%

Wheat gives the summertime beer its cloudy appearance and luscious texture. The light banana and clove aromas originate from a traditional German yeast strain.

Iridium Flare – New England IPA – 4.25%

A bright flash full of bubbles, this pale ale is space sessionable and spritzy. Florescent orange, fading through nectarine and raspberry, before vanishing in dank dissolve.

Summer Friends – Black IPA – 7.7%

An August herb garden of hops: mint, basil, grass, and licorice. Dark color, dark flavor, like sweet and mildly burnt coffee.

Greater Heron – Doppelbock – 7.6%

The darkest ruby yet, wading through caramel, toffee; sweet nuts and herbs; complex cake, burnt sugar, and grandma’s toasted bread.

Wingspan – Weizenbock – 7.7%

A lavish wheat ale: sweet bread, banana, walnut, plum, allspice and a little bit of warmth, like what you feel high in your chest after chasing a sparrow around a conference room with a box until you’re both tired and can go outside again.

Sleepyhead – IPA – 6.75%

Looks like an unhurried sunrise and smells of famished fruit breakfast: pineapple, tangerine, and lemon. Tastes like my most bitter knife, dulled by soft wheat. Brewed with local Midwest harvested hops.