What's in a name?

Naming our beers was one of the trickier tasks we came up against when designing our branding. There are so many craft beer legends out there with super creative, clever and witty names. After thinking long and hard and after lots of puns and plays on words (mostly from co-founder John) we realised that we may have been trying to be something we’re not.

Now that’s not to say we aren’t creative, clever or witty…we just forgot that starting the Copper Beech Brewing company was a very personal journey. Each beer has been brewed from the heart with a memory attached and we didn’t want to keep it all to ourselves so we thought what better way to share them with you? Read on to find out how your beer got its name.

Nineteen Dollar Return

The first of our beers to take its name inspiration from co-founders John & Trish.

When talking to them about potential names for our West Coast IPA we told them of how we were struggling as we had never travelled to this part of the world, nor did we have any links to it…and so came the tale of their 1978 trip to Los Angels, via Amsterdam and Vancouver…for just $19 dollars!

For context, Trish worked for Air Anglia at the time and so had the opportunity to pay tax only fares by hopping on to flights which weren’t full and could get pretty much anywhere as long as you are willing to travel on random days and rarely straight from A to B.

Whilst in Los Angeles John and Trish hired a blue Ford Pinto thinking they were super cool, until they later found out that whilst looking great, the fuel tank was in the rear and so there was a fairly high chance of the entire car bursting into flames if hit from behind! The day before they came home they decided to go to Disney Land, parked their Pinto (each making a note of its location via lettered poles nearby) and headed off to enjoy the park for the day. At 8pm they left to get dinner however, when they returned to the car park they found that they had both noted down completely different letters…

Long story short, three hours later, starving hungry and after walking what felt like miles searching for an unfamiliar car, the car park ended up pretty empty and they eventually made it back to relative safety (lets not forget that fuel tank).

That little anecdote aside, they say it was in all a brilliant trip - especially for a $19 dollar return.

Shop Nineteen Dollar Return