Barrel Man Ale Is a Great Name for a Beer

I’ve been a big backer of Owgust, the Barrel Man, and it’s been very cool to see him pop up prominently in the Brewers’ recent YOUniform contest (here’s hoping Ben’s design with the Barrel Man becomes part of the regular-season uniform options).  Seriously, Barrel Man rules, Ball ‘N Glove drools.  I do love the Ball ‘N Glove (or Ball in Glove or Ball and Glove), but it’s so played out and who wants to see the Brewers lose to the Cardinals while wearing the Ball ‘N Glove, thereby forcing us to think about the 1982 failure that haunts the franchise to the present day?  Not me.  The Brewers tossed out the Barrel Man logo originally in favor of Ball ‘N Glove, which was fine, but then they tossed out the Ball ‘N Glove in favor of the abominations of the 1990s.  That all led us to today’s cursive ‘M’ with the barley, so I guess we’re all good, albeit a bit disoriented.

Along comes this Brewers promotion with Leinenkugel’s now, where there’s a special Miller Park-only beer coming at the end of May and the club is asking fans for input on the name of said brew.  Unfortunately, the options for the name are fairly lame.  The first is ‘Brew Crew Brew’, which is cool because it has the phrase ‘Brew Crew’ but then ultimately sounds redundant.  There’s also ‘Brewers All-Star Ale’, which comes off as generic and perhaps a little presumptuous.  Finally, the clear winner in my opinion is ‘Bernie’s Barrelman Ale’, which is brilliant in that it contains a nod to the almighty Barrel Man, but inexplicably includes Bernie Brewer in the possessive.  Surely the Brewers meant to include both great symbols of the team in an innocuous fashion but it comes across a little bit like Barrel Man is in deference to Bernie, which I don’t like.  In any case, it comes across as muddled with both Bernie and Barrel Man in the name.  ‘Bernie Brewer Ale’, ‘Bernie’s Chalet Ale’ or better yet: ‘Barrel Man Ale’ would’ve been great.  Alas, I nitpick.  Vote ‘Bernie’s Barrel Man’, because the other two choices are as boring and sterile as Bernie sliding into some water instead of beer.