What's in a name?

It is a question often reserved for men and roses that can equally apply to beer. I mention this because this past week saw the release of one of my favorite line of sours from Proclamation Brewery, the 'Alpaca Magi' series. Now a few years ago I did not like sours but over time I began to acquire the taste and now sours are one of my favorite styles and the beer that really jump-started my love of sours was 'The Unyielding Wrath of the Alpaca Magi' an American Wild Ale. I first tried it when I was at the Second Annual Ocean State Beer Fest. I was at the Proclamation table trying their beers and after striking up a conversation with one of the brewers he had asked if I liked sours and when I replied that I did they mentioned that they had a bottle of their sour that they were going to open and that I should try it if I were interested... I was. Then I asked what the name of the beer was and once I heard it I just had to try it. The beer was the perfect American Wild Ale, a devastatingly sour beer with a great light mouthfeel. 

This year's 'Alpaca' is called 'The Tropical Excursion of the Alpaca Magi' and it is quite good. While I do like the other ones better it is still a very good sour. Proclamation has an amazing sour program and an even better job with their names for their sours. The other night I had split a bottle of another one of their sours 'Breathing Life into a Dead Ghost' a name so interesting, so awe inspiring, that upon hearing it you have to know what a beer with that name would taste like. This beer is much more crisp and lighters than an 'Alpaca' beer but it was still well worth it.

This lead me to a more philosophical question about the name making the beer or the beer making the name. If you're a brewer and you brew an amazing beer with a somewhat lackluster name will the beer live up to its full potential? Or if you are a brewer and brew a somewhat lackluster beer but give it a stunning name will it make the beer better? I tend to think that a good beer will always shine regardless of the name but with that being said though, you name your beer something weird/funny and it is a guarantee I will try it.