Without a doubt, the 2 focus groups we held were the best ideas we have spawned throughout this process.  The opportunity to connect with craft beer enthusiasts, and more importantly, to share our basic business premise with individuals who appreciate and seek out craft beer, was amazing.

We held 2 focus groups over the course of 7 days, and they were more than effective in helping us shape the name of our business.  To be honest, the results of these focus groups will help not only name our brewery, but also determine the direction of several other important variables that we are looking at.  Things such as the layout of our tasting room, the size of bottle we are going to put our beer into, and the types of beer we are going to produce are all facets of the business that we touched on in these focus groups.

What I learned from focus groups is that a name should be short, easy to pronounce and spell, meaningful, genuine, and unique.  There was a feeling among both groups that a generic name, or Vancouver based place name (such as False Creek Brewing or Strathcona Brewing) didn’t capture exactly what we are trying to do.  More importantly, people feel like these names can come across as horribly disingenuous.  Names such as Stanley Park Brewing (brewed on Annacis Island) and Bowen Island Brewing (Northam Brewing) seemed to come to mind when people thought of place names.

For the brewery we are creating, it seemed a name that was representative of what we are doing was most applicable.  In other words, a made up name, or a word that is picked for purely interest sake, with some connection to what we are doing will show people the honesty and approach we are taking to things.  This really matters to us, and as such we took this feedback to heart.

So we took out the names like Orange Brewing, Strathcona, False Creek and even East Van Brewing Company.  What we were left with was a group of about 8 names that really stood out as top of the list.  We are currently looking into the legal side of these names, and how that will impact what we choose to do and how that effects the last part of our naming competition.

Until then, thanks for the continued feedback and interest in things …. I really look forward to sharing the last part of the the naming process:  The final few choices and letting everyone vote on those names.