Beer Labels

If you've been following Flying W Things you know I have a batch of beer in the middle of the fermenting process. (If you haven't been, well, now you're up to speed.) Now is the time for beer naming anxiety - the beer is into secondary and should turn out ok - but what will I call it? I have some homebrew friends who label their beer by putting a letter on the bottle cap with a Sharpie marker, but I like to do labels.

I've discovered that it's pretty much hopeless for me to solicit other people's ideas for my beer names. I generally don't like them, and Katy (the primary "other people" in the previous sentence) has gotten to the point where she knows not to make too many suggestions - probably because she got tired of me scrunching up my face, nodding slowly, and saying, "Hmm. Maybe..." So I am alone in this exercise, which seems to be the way I like it.

A couple years ago I made a honey porter, which I dubbed Worker Bee Porter. (The sharp-eyed among you will note that this beer was *not* brewed at the Flying W Brewery - it was not until two batches later that I began using that marque for my work.) As this batch is a honey wheat beer, I think I'll continue the line and call it Worker Bee Weizen.

I have some strange rules for labels on stuff I make - be it beer or music mixes. I feel like the label should be mostly hand-lettered and should show some personal touches. I can't quite explain why I feel that way - but I'll try to anyway.

These things are products of my own personal time and effort - and should have that touch upon them, embrace it. I am not a manufacturing plant, and there are going to be small variances - for example, some bottles of a batch of beer will end up better carbonated than others, and there will be a little more or a little less beer from bottle to bottle. I feel like a completely computer generated label misrepresents that somehow. It's too orderly. Does that make any sense?