Tuesday, 28 March 2017

Name A Beer!

© The Halo Brewery
I recently contacted Callum Hay and Eric Portelance at the Halo Brewery based in Toronto, Canada, to see whether they would be willing to consider a few suggestions for a name for a halo themed beer. I was very pleasantly surprised when they replied that they would be open to any ideas as they sometimes found it difficult to find a suitable name for their beers. Callum and Eric brew in the Belgian and American traditions but employ a fair degree of experimentation and artistry,

"We use fruit, spices, and other unique ingredients in our recipes to complement the flavours of our malt, hops and yeast. The more interesting ingredient, the better."

Now here is where I would like to hand it over to you. I know that there are many beer connoisseurs amongst our readers and contributors who really appreciate a fine ale. This is a unique opportunity to have a beer named after the subject that is close to our hearts. Perhaps you would like to name it after one of the early pioneers such as Lowitz or Parry, or perhaps you would like to immortalise a particular rare and exotic halo. Likewise, maybe you could also suggest a particular style of beer like a Supralateral IPA, a Wegener dubbel, a Tricker trippel a Subsun Sour or a Parhelic Stout. Use your imagination and let's see what we can come up with. Any and all suggestions will be passed on to Callum and Eric for their consideration. I can't promise that they will definitely use any names we suggest but it will be a fun challenge all the same!

For more information about the Halo Brewery and the work they do, please check out their site,

© The Halo Brewery

9 comments:

  1. One suggestion from the Hungarian halo forum: diamond dust (by György Répás)

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  2. So I've also been thinking about the beer names. I like those the most, where the halo type is combined with the beer type. Tricker trippel, Subsun Sour sound especially poetic because of the alliteration. Along that line, we could have Parry Porter, or even Bottlinger Bitter. And then you could ask for a bottle of Bottlinger ;) And there is the type "ice beer" so why not have Ice Crystal Beer? But perhaps a simple Solar Halo and Lunar Halo would also do.

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    1. Or rather: Bottlinger's Bitter. That sounds better and goes with the halo name. But Bottlinger's Bock is not bad, either. And we could even call an ice beer "Diamond Dust" (see György Répás's suggestion).

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  3. Okay, for starters, here is a series of three bad boys to tantalise your taste buds. More to come.

    Helic IPA 7%
    Subhelic Double IPA 10%
    Subanthelic Triple IPA 12%

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    1. I suppose I should also include Tricker anthelic somewhere to complete the kaleidoscopic arcs!

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  4. And a couple more,

    Kern Cherry Porter 6%

    Tränkle Berliner Weisse (Sweet Woodruff) 3%

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    1. What came to my mind is not a name, but rather what a cool ad could be made for the beer: guy is standing in the afternoon by the freshly reaped field of wheat, lights are of pastel shade. Guy’s forehead is sweaty and sweltering; he’s tired, leaning by the now steady combine-harvester with the joy of work he’s done, and he is looking into the distance. From the background you can hear a dog barking, then his wife appears with a basket, in which there’s the cold beer, of course. Our man pops one open, and as he is drinking it by lifting it upwards, the camera’s angle is following this movement from his perspective. By the time the beer’s been gulped, guy notices the CZA at the top of the sky. His eyes pop out, stares at the beer then asks one more from his wife. He starts drinking it … now slower than before… and as the camera is rising again, a spectacular complex halo display reveals itself. Meanwhile, the colours of the movie turn more and more vivid from the original pastel shade. He drinks the third beer, this time by picking up his wife, turning her around – and thus the camera drifts along the phc.
      The other ad idea, if a Diamond Dust beer was made: kids are playing ice hockey on the frozen lake by a rural town. The parents are watching them from the shore. A boy – bit of a halfwit – smites the disk, which flies towards the sky. Mom is standing with a bottle of beer in her hand, and is just taking a gulp. She follows the track of the disk with mouth agape. Disc is flying slowly into the distance, with sparkling diamond dust in its track. Mom looks at the kid, then the beer in her own hand. She raises it up to the sunlight to look through the glass (thus blocking the sun). Camera changes to wide-angle, and on the two sides of the beer bottle, the twinkling diamond dust parhelia and the UTA appear.
      Old man, wearing “armpit-trousers” catches a trout from whitewater. In the background on the rocky peaks, there is reddish sunlight. On the riverbank, there is a maple tree shedding leaves. The man lifts up the fishie into the sunlight to have a better look at it, and just above the fish, he notices the red sunpillar of the setting sun.

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    2. Noli, those are absolutely fabulous, especially the first one! Someone with video or animation skills definitely has to make that one without question. You can just imagine it, not just a complex halo display, but EVERY single halo that it is possible to see and all at peak intensity. I wonder what the beer responsible would be? Ice Crystal Meth Halo beer? Reminds me of Marko's psychedelic diamond dust colours....

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