Beer Naming Standards

When you create a beer to our database, you help build our community. We appreciate it greatly - but over the past couple of weeks - we have noticed a whole slew of duplicates, so we wanted to formalize a standards for creating beers.

If you have objections or suggestions - post them here. We really want to hear your feedback.

Standards

Here are a few guidelines to follow when creating your beer.

1. Do not include the name of the Brewery in the title of the beer. For example, Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale should have a title of Celebration Ale and not include the Brewery. Notable exceptions: Any beer from Samuel Adams must include it in the beer name. This is because Samuel Adams is not the Brewery, Boston Beer Company is.

2. Only "vintage" a beer if its listed on the label/bottle or if the recipe changes from year to year. For example, Bigfoot from Sierra Nevada has the year on the bottle cap. So you would add the beer as "Bigfoot (2011)". If the beer is cellar aged, do not create a new beer but rather include the vintage in the comments. You can find out more about our vintage policy here: http://help.untappd.com/kb/beer-guidelines/vintage-beer-policy

3. Please make your beer name proper case. For example, "celebration ale", should read "Celebration Ale".

4. For beer brands that are owned by another brewery, create a new beer under the owning brewery. For example, Blue Moon Belgian White should be categorized under Coors Brewing Company, not Blue Moon Brewing Company. NOTE: This only applies to breweries that have no physical brewing plant. For example, Goose Island has a physical brewing plant, so their beers should be categorized under Goose Island, not Anheuser-Busch.

5. If you have the time - use the description field to enter in information about the beer. This may not be shown now - but will important in the future.

6. Clone Beers are not allowed in the Database due to possible trademark issues. Give you Homebrew an original name. If you do not - your beer will be removed.

7. Home-brews are allowed, but please create your own Brewery (i.e Greg's Brewery) and assign them there. Do not assign them to them "Homebrew" brewery.

8. IMPORTANT If the beer is a special version, such as Cask or Nitro - please note that in the comments - do not create a new beer. If you do, it will be merged. This goes for any special, on-off release, like "Apple Infused", etc.

9. If the beer is part of chain of breweries (Like Rock Bottom or BJs) the following rules are to be followed. The Chain should have 1 Master Brewery. Each beer that is core the chain should of 1 entry. Many chain breweries will brew the same 6 to 8 beers at all locations. If a beer is unique and brewed locally we can note the specific location in parenthesis. Example: Killer IPA (Chicago)

10. Do not use offensive wording when naming your home-brewed beer or home-brew brewery. If you choose to do this - your entry will be deleted.

11. Beer Blends (meaning two beers blended into 1) that are not made for distribution by a brewery, are not not allowed on Untappd. These will be removed by our Moderator team upon discovery.

12. Collaboration beers where 2 or more breweries work together on a release should be listed under the primary brewery where the beer was produced. For example: Dogfish Head and Stone brew a new beer together - the new beer should be created under the host brewery. If there is no host brewery then a new brewery called Dogfish Head / Stone should be created. Please verify if a collaboration brewery already exists on Untappd before creating a new one.

13. Do not name your beer, "White House Honey" or "White House Porter". Always give your homebrew a distinct name.

(Last Updated: 5/9/13)

We will continue to build up this list of standards as we go forward. We need to your suggestions to help us make this list better! Let us know!