Laissez-Faire Barleywine? Yea or Nay?
Many of you are aware of the trouble we’ve had coming up with a suitable name for our barleywine, which will be available come Christmastime. When storing the barleywine, I wrote “Laissez-Faire” on the boxes to signify that people needs to keeps their grubby paws off of our masterpiece. Laissez-Faire represents, of course, the economic principle of a free market economy, in which the government keeps out of the grown man bidness. (Brad will be proud).
Jeff saw the boxes and determined that this would indeed be a good name for a brew. I concurred. Joel grumbled something. And thus it was decided.
Our dilemma is now to figure out what to put on the label. Our names and labels thus far have revolved around a character (a clown pirate IPA, a ninja pale ale, a lumberjack stout, etc.). We’d like to keep the streak alive. Unfortunately, we have no idea what to put on a label for a Laissez-Faire Barleywine. WE NEED YOUR IDEAS! THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO BECOME IMMORTAL!
Jonathan, Joel & Jeff
September 25th, 2007 at 9:37 am
Perhaps a picture of a rosy-cheeked, bloated 18th century capitalist, which would combine a reference to those who first used the term “laissez-faire” in an economic context with a picture of someone looking suitably punished after a bit too much of the ale.
September 25th, 2007 at 10:00 am
Calvin Coolidge
September 25th, 2007 at 10:27 am
I’d go with the “invisible hand” but have a dude with his hand missing and him being quick surprised–a cheeky twist on Smith’s invisible hand theory.
September 25th, 2007 at 11:43 am
ARRRGGG maties a vote for a Pirate theme.
September 25th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
I’ve got nothin but another bad pun that came to me yesterday: “A House of Ale Repute.” Surely there’s a home for that somewhere.
Actually, I like Laissez-Faire, except that it might be a bit snooty-sounding for the average salt-of-the-earth beer drinker (I mean, the words are French). A more colloquial expression of a similar principle is “let sleeping dogs lie,” yielding the amiable: Sleeping Dog Barleywine. What do you think? The animal kingdom has been underrepresented thus far.
September 25th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Frederic Bastiat… It can be the “Bastiat’s Laissez-Faire Barleywine” :-)
September 26th, 2007 at 7:45 am
I wouldn’t agree that “let sleeping dogs lie” equates to laissez-faire. In fact I’d say it was more like “let ravenous dogs rip all the other hounds to pieces then stamp on their entrails”
September 26th, 2007 at 7:45 am
…and then eat their young
September 26th, 2007 at 8:36 am
This is a different angle all together. You wanted to keep people away from the beer. “Keep your hands off” (obvious some liberty with my translation) leads me to “Guardian” or “Protector”. And from there I can’t help but think of Maximus and the movie Gladiator.
Just the rumblings of someone trying to avoid work…
September 26th, 2007 at 10:24 am
@Walter:
This is precisely the problem we ran into earlier with our favorite barleywine name Triple Dog Barleywine (from the infamous “triple dog dare”). We don’t want to use “dog” in the name because of Flying Dog.
Stupid Flying Dog.
September 26th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
I second Stonch.
September 26th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
I am thinking of a general mob scene with one of the members holding one hand up in the air holding a stein.
Quote: “Laissez-faire, Supply-and-demand, - one begins to be weary of all that. Leave all to egoism, to ravenous greed of money, of pleasure, of applause: it is the Gospel of Despair!†–Thomas Carlyle
September 26th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
to me, Laissez-faire suggests you let it ferment naturally. Or a bug got in it and you’re trying to pawn it off as intentional. Maybe it’s just me that does that.
September 29th, 2007 at 10:57 am
The late, great author of the books “Free to Choose” and “Capitalism and Freedom,” Milton Friedman.
December 11th, 2007 at 8:50 am
[...] porch, newly outfitted with lights, which makes it a lot easier to see. Between a bottle of our Laissez-Faire Barleywine (which is delicious), Avery’s 14th Anniversary Ale (which is also delicious) and the newest [...]