Lost in Translation

Name an oatmeal stout almost anything clever or creative, and beer snobs will generally figure out what the title suggests.

New Holland Brewery’s “The Poet”? The beer is as dark and complex as Poe himself.

Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery’s “Black H2O”? Few liquids come darker or cloudier than a stout.

Church Brew Works’ “Blast Furnace Stout”? Taste the smokiness in the brew.

Boulder Beer Co.’s “Obovoid Empirical Stout”? Call me confused.

“Obovoid,” released by the brewery on Nov. 15, crosses the line between clever and downright absurd. I had to look up the definition of the word.



Merriam-Webster defines “obovoid” as "ovoid with the broad end toward the apex."
Not knowing what “ovoid” meant, I looked that term up as well. “Resembling an egg shape,” the M-W entry read.

“Empirical” is a word I’m certainly familiar with thanks to sixth grade science. However, I wasn’t sure it applied to the description of a beer. M-W confirmed my doubts about the use of the word.

"Originating in or based on observation or experience," M-W read.

So Boulder Beer produced an oatmeal stout with an upside-down egg shape based on observation or experience. Got it. Sounds like something I want to drink.

Boulder Beer enjoys trying to name its brews with clever titles — Sweaty Betty Blonde, Hazed and Infused dry hopped ale, Mojo IPA, Pass Time Pale Ale, Planet Porter. Not all of them make sense, but at they’re understood without the need for a dictionary.

A word of caution for Boulder Beer: if you want people to drink your beer, you have to at least give them some idea of what they are swallowing. Non-sense names draw attention in the grocery store, but they don’t scream “drink me.” Instead of looking through the dictionary for strange words, focus on the appealing aspects of the beer: its flavor and texture.