Went to a local brewery and their brand felt totally fake

Stopped at Iron Works Brewing in Portland last Saturday. Huge logo on the wall, all craft aesthetic. But their cans had the same generic font as three other breweries I saw. Nobody could tell me the story behind the name. Just felt like they bought a brand package instead of building one. Am I overthinking this or does brand consistency actually matter more than the product these days?

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3 Comments

riley_coleman83mo ago

Man if I walked into a brewery and nobody could tell me why it was called Iron Works I'd just assume they found a cool sign at a salvage yard and ran with it. That's basically buying a whole personality off the shelf like a fake leather jacket. Guess they figured people would just drink the beer and not ask questions. But come on, the generic font thing is just lazy, like they downloaded it for free off some random site. Might as well slap a QR code on the wall and call it interactive branding. Guess product quality matters but when the vibe feels like a temu version of a craft brewery it's hard to take the beer seriously either.

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elizabetha923mo ago

Yeah, I totally feel you on that. The whole "found a cool sign at a salvage yard" thing really hit home, @riley_coleman8. I've been to a few breweries where it felt like they just picked a name out of a hat and hoped nobody would notice. It's one thing if the beer is amazing, but when the whole vibe feels borrowed, it's hard not to wonder what else they're faking.

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grant8263mo ago

Guilty as charged, I once named a pet after a street sign I found.

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