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How do you name your batches

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Alden

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Sep 13, 2005
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I haven't really gotten all that creative when it comes to naming my batches, but I just racked my maple wine and my killer bee mead this weekend (from primary buckets to 3-gal carboys) and I racked the overage from each batch into a single gallon jug, making an Acerglyn. I didn't intend to make an acerglyn, it just sort of happened that way. So I'm calling it "Alden's Accidental Acerglyn" subtitled "You got your maple wine in my mead. You got your mead in my maple wine!"

So how do y'all come up with names for your batches?
 

davarm

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Feb 6, 2005
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Hope you don't think I am too weird....

I've am in the habit of naming my meads after recently deceased celebrities. I only name them after people who I have some respect for or who had some influence in my life while I was growing up, so I tend to dedicate them to Television stars and musicians rather than those holding political office. Tomorrow night, I'll be bottling "Grandpa Munster Raspberry Mead". I also tend to name the mead after the character they play, rather than their "stage" name; which ever is more recognized to me. I also include their picture on the label. It seems that tying a human face to a batch of mead will make it more personal, plus it helps to remember whether the effort was favorable or not. Some of my recent creations include:

Ernest T. Bass Orange
Gilligan Cinnamon/Spice
Shelby Foote Blackberry
Maxwell Smart Light Braggot
Mr. Myagi Strawberry
The Donut Guy Pomegranate
Link Wray Light Braggot
Lou Rawls Brown Braggot
Rosa Parks Blueberry

Obviously I spent too much time watching TV when I was growing up. My next bottle may be named for Peter Benchley, depending on the timing. I've also created a batch of "Boohbah Grape" and "Tinky Winky Traditional" since those are my kid's favorite cartoons.
 

Pewter_of_Deodar

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Sep 23, 2004
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I am not terribly creative, especially at first, though I try to add a little something to the name to make it something other than just plain "Blueberry Wine" or "Cyser".

"Christmas Cyser" used Christmas spices.

"Sloppy Seconds Grape Wine" used grape seconds but will likely be called "Peasant's Wine" in the future because it is low budget because of free grapes.

"Two Spoon Metheglyn" because of two spoons of spices.

"Crazy Ludwig's Blackberry Wine" named after the lady that gave me the recipe.

I guess I struggle to find a name that has the right mix of cleverness and is still descriptive enough to provide a pretty good idea of what is in the bottle...
 

memento

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Aug 3, 2005
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I started with the concept of making mine all Norse related, since I associate mead with "Vikings" and have named my meadmaking operation Old Helleberg Mjødkraft.

Roskilde - vanilla mead. Wanted a Norse city name that wasn't too hard to pronounce.
Freya - peach/cinnamon. I made this mead in the hopes that an offer to the Norse goddess of fertility would help provide me with my first newborn. No luck yet.
Valkyrie - spiced. The label was already designed, so Valkyrie fit well.

But I diverged from that with my Beelzebub Mephistopheles Cyser. That was something I mumbled in conversation w/r/t how evil that batch was. It stuck.

Now I have to name my cider. I don't know what it should be. It's not a mead so it may not have a Norse name.

I always liked davarm's names. And his whole "dave-on-a-stick" thing. :D too funny.
 

WRATHWILDE

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As suggestively as possible names or labels...

Acerglyn Aphrodisiac (no label yet)

Wicked Temptation (Peel me a grape Pyment) click on link...
http://picserv.pixio.nl/~picserver/i.php?/6J711H9XXQ8P8MJJ/E9C84666UG79/JPEG/1134336093/512/b8th

Wanton Cherry (aka Cherry Liquor)
512


Chocolate Acerglyn
512


Wrathwilde
 

Mynx

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Apr 8, 2005
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I usually name my meads from circumstances which happened around them. Hence "Blackberry Tattoos" is my blackberry mead, since my fingers were purple for weeks after picking the berries. "Blackroot Mead" was my liquorice, and I actually named it that so people would try it and not go "Ew! Liquorice!" ... y orange-ginger I named "Cheshire Cat", partially due to the colour, partially cause I have an orange cat :)

The vanilla I'm having issues might be the "Stupid B*tch" ... maybe I should name it after my boyfriend's ex-wife... (we need an evil emoticon.)
 

WRATHWILDE

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Jab,

I don't seem to find the time to do much artwork anymore, and as good as I am with Photography or portraits in pencil/ink, I am rotten at anything cartoonish. I did have a hell of a time Photoshopping that one because the original was in color (awful) and just a straight conversion to BW created muddy grays. Some of my artwork follows... Note that a lot of the very subtle shading is lost in the pencil portraits.

512
512

512
512


Wrathwilde
 

WRATHWILDE

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...and one more for now. I have a few that are poster size and too large to scan. The BW pencil drawings were done within the first 4 months of my learning to draw. Serious, before I started even my stick figures were funny looking. I had a friend who was an incredible artist and he forced me to take up drawing... by refusing to be commissioned for drawing the blonde in the BW pencil sketches. I had done a photo session with her and since I didn't have access to a darkroom at that time I sent my negatives off to be processed. They came back scratched, fogged, watermarked and fingerprinted, the only thing they didn't do was crumple them up in little balls. Not a single one of the pictures were viable, and she had since run away from home, no chance to retake them. I pressured him several times to draw them for me, regardless of cost. He finally got tired of me asking and said "Draw them yourself." to which I replied "I can't draw." So he said "Well, it looks like you're going to have to learn." His teaching only consisted of 4 tips uttered once each. Never draw the lower eyelids until you have the eyes right, pay attention to angles, pay attention to shading, and never use hard lines in portraits. Thats it, that's all the help I got from him. If I see it I can draw it, but I can't seem to just sit down and draw from mental images. So it's Still Life / Portrait sketches for me.

512
 

Miriam

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Feb 2, 2005
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I tend to stick to fairly conventional names: Miriam's Merlot 2005, sort of thing. I've been missing out on a creative opportunity, hm. Although one wine I was bottling at a time when I was worriying about something, and singing "The Worried Man Blues" around the house a lot, I called "Worried Man Wine."

I've got a whole bunch of wines and meads almost ready for bottling...I'm going to put a little energy into more original labels.

Miriam
 

Oskaar

Got Mead Partner
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Dec 26, 2004
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I tend to look out my office window while I'm constructing the recipe so I get interesting names like:

Fat Squawking Crow Blackberry Melomel

Kat Under My Wheels Blood Orange Metheglin

Topless Coed Sparkling Mead

Two Dogs F!cking Stout

Cheers,

Oskaar
 

WRATHWILDE

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I live two doors down from a bar... so I guess the names from my window could get interesting.

Stumbling to My Car Rhodomel
Somebody Just Thew Up on the Pyment
Loud Obnoxious Braggot
She's Got Him by the Sack Mead
I'm Gonna F*ckin' Kill All You Hippocras

Wrathwilde
 

palecricket1

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Jul 8, 2005
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I just give em spanish names. Being spanish is kind of my trademark, which is extremely ironic since I'm pale as death (take after my belgian mother). Neverthless, tengo el corazon cubano de mi padre. I started off with fancy names like "Sangre de oro aguamiel tradicional", "llaves del cielo meteglina", but then I got lazy and started naming them like children ;D. "Pablo gordo braggot de jengibre", "juanita bonita aguamiel de fresa". Kind of makes it more personal to say "pass me a glass of juanita", plus it makes people question you're sanity, which is always a good thing in my book ;)
 

Angus

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Names tend to be assigned based on whatever comes into my head when I sit down to make the label. Thus, my last 3 Meads have been named " ", and " ? " and finally " I like cake " :p. Then the better half steps in and helps out.

Angus

WW - Old Woody it is.
 

mtmead

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Feb 12, 2006
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Looking to the past for inspiration

Mead-Heads Unite,

I feel that since mead is such an ancient drink and in my opinion an art for unto itself, you need to take heed and tip your viking helm to those names of old. Anything in the Viking, Norse, Anglo-Saxon and Celtic Culture that dealt with this historical nectar I feel is best.

Eric
 

Dan McFeeley

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Re: Looking to the past for inspiration

mtmead said:
Mead-Heads Unite,

I feel that since mead is such an ancient drink and in my opinion an art for unto itself, you need to take heed and tip your viking helm to those names of old. Anything in the Viking, Norse, Anglo-Saxon and Celtic Culture that dealt with this historical nectar I feel is best.

Hello Eric --

Although I'd agree that the familiar cultural images associated with mead are usually just that, Viking, Norse, Anglo-Saxon and Celtic cultures, mead is much broader in context than these warband cultures. Here's an example from from Jewish folk lore -- unfortunately, I haven't been able to find the source:

-----------------------------------------------
One time, at a farbrengen (gathering) where the Chasidim were sitting and drinking mead (a sweet honey wine that used to be very popular), a Chasid named Reb Moshe told the following story:

"Many years ago," he began, "while visiting Vienna, I sent my servant to a nearby Jewish inn to buy a bottle of mead. When he came back I discovered that it was the most delicious mead that I had ever tasted. In fact, it was so good that I immediately sent him back to buy some more. I gave him enough money for ten bottles, figuring that my family and I would enjoy it for a long time to come.

"But my servant came back empty-handed. I took out a few more coins from my pocket, but he shook his head. 'It isn't the money,' he told me. 'There just isn't any more to be had.'

"I decided to go see for myself. When I entered the inn, I saw a large crowd of people who had apparently just finished eating a festive meal. I approached the innkeeper and asked him to sell me some of his delicious honey wine.

" 'I'm sorry, but there isn't even a drop left of that particular type,' he said. 'Well, when do you expect to get more?' I persisted. 'Quite frankly, never!' " The innkeeper then told me the following:

Many years before he had been a mohel, a ritual circumciser. From the very beginning of his holy work he had set himself one cardinal rule: that he would never refuse a request perform make a brit mila (circumcision), no matter how difficult the circumstances.

One year on the day before Yom Kippur, a Jewish farmer had knocked on his door and asked him to circumcise his eight-day-old son. The farmer lived quite a distance away - six parasangs - and it was the day before Yom Kippur. Nonetheless, the mohel agreed to conduct the brit.

When they stepped outside the mohel realized that the farmer was too poor to have hired a carriage; neither was the mohel himself a man of means. There was no choice but to walk the whole distance. The farmer started out in the direction of his house, but he was walking so quickly that the mohel soon lagged behind. Eventually the farmer disappeared behind a bend in the road.

Hours later the mohel arrived in town and asked some neighbors where the family with the new baby lived. When he walked into the house he found the mother lying in bed with the infant. She was so weakened that she could barely respond. The father, however, was nowhere to be seen. For some reason he hadn't thought it important to attend his own son's brit.

The mohel now faced a serious problem: Who would serve as sandek to hold the baby during the ritual procedure? Time was of the essence; it was the eighth day of the infant's life, and he needed to be entered into the covenant of Abraham immediately. But without a sandek it would be very dangerous. Indeed, the mohel had never attempted such a thing before.

The mohel walked outside hoping to find someone on the street he could ask. For a long time he waited, but the street was deserted. Suddenly, he spotted an old beggar coming around the corner. "I'm in a big hurry," the man replied impatiently when the mohel asked for his assistance. "Today is Yom Kippur eve, and I can collect a whole ruble going door to door if I get to the city in time."

Desperate by then, the mohel promised to pay him a ruble if he would only serve as sandek. The beggar agreed, and the brit mila was conducted without incident. The mohel then left for the long walk back to the city.

After praying the afternoon service the mohel went home for the final meal before the fast, and was astonished to see the very same beggar waiting on his doorstep. He quickly paid him the ruble he had promised, but the beggar also demanded a drink of mead. The mohel was very tired by then and in no mood for entertaining. Nevertheless, but he invited him inside and poured the drink. But even that wasn't enough for the strange old man: he insisted that the mohel join him in a glass of mead, and that they wish each other a good and sweet new year. With no alternative, the mohel complied.

"Tell me, is there any more of this wine left in the barrel?" the annoying stranger persisted. "Very little," the mohel answered, "only a few more drops." "There will always be mead in this barrel," the beggar then pronounced cryptically, "until the last blessing is recited at your youngest son's wedding celebration." The beggar then pointed to the mohel's son sleeping in his cradle.

"The blessing was fulfilled in its entirety," the innkeeper concluded his tale. "There is no explanation other than that the old man was Elijah the Prophet. With my seemingly endless supply of mead I opened this inn, and completely forgot about the rest of his prediction. That is, until today, when the barrel suddenly fell and broke into pieces as we were reciting the Grace After Meals at my youngest son's wedding. And that is why I am telling you that there will never be any more of this particular batch of mead..."
-----------------------------------------

I've had some recent back channel conversations with Miriam on this subject -- apparently mead and Jewish culture goes back even further, to Talmudic times.

Or Celtic themes -- mead is also associated with the Golden Age of Saints in Ireland. That's a whole host of different images associated with mead!

Lots of stuff to draw from!
 

Zem

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I've thought that Mead would have been a part of ancient Jewish tradition with honey and wine playing many roles in the religion.

As for mead naming--many of them get simple names, nothing too fancy unless I think it needs it. The exception is my Long Shot Cherry Mel, which I cant believe finished.
That was the Eau De Vie must which I shorted, then overfed, then repitched (then it stuck), then split down and diluted and repitched again (and it was slooow) and impressively referenced when I added the cherries.

Because of all the screwing around I did with it I can only guess at the ABV, but it's at least 13%

On the other hand—a lot of folks name their meadery--what made you chose what you did?
 

Mynx

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Apr 8, 2005
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Re: meadery/brewery .... that's an easy one! I'm Mynx, therefore Mynx's Meadery ... tho now that I make beer too, it may have to be altered slightly...

Naw! My boyfriend has already designed me a logo, which I'm getting made into a silver brooch.
 
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