The choice of craft beer names in present-day South Africa : an analysis

Abstract

The production and consumption of beer in South Africa and elsewhere have been in existence for many years. Many restaurants developed as eateries with their main focus on beer as the available alcoholic drink with the food. Beer is available all across South Africa, and over the last decade, new beers have been developed, notably the craft beers characterised by unusual brand names, with specifically attractive bottled or canned looks. In order to support the production and consumption of beer, an annual competition is held where all breweries from across the country are invited to participate, regardless of the type of beer they produce. The South African National Beer Trophy (SANBT) is South Africa's premier beer competition and it is a driving force behind the rise in beer quality and consistency. The competition is judged according to the international Beer Judge Certification Programme (BJCP) rules. The main purpose with this contribution is to analyse some of the names chosen by the producers for these craft beers who participated in the SANBT competition. In an onomastic context, any chosen name for a brand is carefully selected seeing that it might play an important role in the economic context. Many of the new craft beers compete against one another according to their names, design (on the traditional bottling or can) and type of beer.