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!
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.
Calvin Coolidge
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.
ARRRGGG maties a vote for a Pirate theme.
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.
Frederic Bastiat… It can be the “Bastiat’s Laissez-Faire Barleywine” :-)
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”
…and then eat their young
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…
@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.
I second Stonch.
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!â? –Thomas Carlyle
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.
The late, great author of the books “Free to Choose” and “Capitalism and Freedom,” Milton Friedman.
[...] 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 [...]