Finding your brewery's brand essence in one line
A brand essence is the short line that captures why your brewery matters. Here is how to find it through interviews, test it and put it to work before a designer draws a single thing.
Write the essence before anyone sketches a logo
Founders love to describe the logo they want: vintage but modern, a bit rustic, a bit playful. That conversation comes too early. Before the look, you need the brand essence: a few words that distil the most compelling thing about your brewery, its biggest point of difference and its reason for existing.
A good essence runs to two or three words, closer to a nickname than a slogan. It is mostly an internal tool. It may shape your tagline, but its real job is to give the brewer, the floor manager and the designer one idea to check their decisions against. When a drinker scans 12 tap handles, the essence is what should make yours read as a reason to order.
Values come first, then the essence grows from them
The essence comes after the core values for a reason. Values are the fixed rules behind your choices. The essence is the sharpest expression of them. List 15 to 25 values, merge the synonyms, then cut to 3 to 6 by asking whether each one guides real decisions, holds when money is at stake, makes you proud and explains why you started. Our guide to mission, vision and values walks through it.
Most breweries talk about what they make (an English-style bitter, say) and how they make it (open fermenters, Indian-grown barley). The reason you got into this at all is where an essence usually hides. Ask it of every founder separately.
Eight plain questions do most of the work
These are the questions we ask at the start of every branding job:
- What is your brewery, in plain English?
- What is the most interesting thing about it?
- Why does it matter?
- What are your core values?
- What is your beer like? Who should drink it?
- What part should the brewery play in drinkers' lives?
- Who are your competitors and how do you differ?
- What should people feel when they see your brand?
Answer them in writing, not in a meeting. Short answers are fine. "A 600 litre brewpub with a kitchen" is a perfectly good answer to the first.
About ten interviews is enough
Talk to everyone with a stake in the brewery: owners, the head brewer, cellar staff, taproom servers, distributors and regulars. For an Indian brewpub, add the head chef and the friend who lent you money. About ten interviews is enough, at 30 minutes each. That is five hours, or a week of evenings.
Do them one to one. Group sessions get taken over by the loudest voice while quieter people nod along. That is how you lose the cellar hand's sharp observation about why regulars keep coming back. Tell each person there is no wrong answer and write down their first reactions word for word. By the sixth interview you will hear the same ideas coming back. Those repeats are your shortlist.
A candidate that survives three tests is worth keeping
Write five or six candidate essences from your shortlist, each under five words. Then put each through three tests:
- Is it true? Can you prove it with something real, such as where your malt comes from or who brews the beer?
- Is it relevant? Would your drinkers care, or is it only interesting to the founders?
- Is it yours? Could the brewpub down the road say the same thing with a straight face?
"Quality craft beer" fails the third test at once. So does "passion". A candidate that passes all three usually feels slightly uncomfortable because it rules things out. That is the sign it is working. If none survive, go back to the interview notes rather than polishing the words.
The essence is the spine of your origin story
Drinkers will not choose you because you call yourself a microbrewery. They might choose you because of why you started. Keep the story to three or four paragraphs. Our storytelling guide shows how to shape it for a menu card, a can side panel and an Instagram bio.
Outside eyes help here, whether a brand consultant or a few blunt friends. Founders are too close to their own story to hear which line is the strong one. Someone who has run interviews and written briefs for years will spot the repeat you missed.
Your first step this week: book the first three interviews, starting with the person on your team who talks least in meetings. When you have your essence, the next stops in our series on branding a new brewery are positioning and voice.
About the authors
Ankur Napa is a Master Brewer who also works in data and AI. Chatty Girija spent more than 30 years in advertising, hosts the Cheers Chatty Beer Podcast and teaches at Craft Beer School.
Common questions
Is a brand essence the same as a tagline?
No. The essence is mostly for internal use and guides decisions. A tagline is public and may grow out of the essence, but it does not have to repeat it.
How long should a brand essence be?
Short enough that every staff member can say it from memory. Two or three words is ideal; we suggest staying under five.
Can a founder write the essence alone?
They can, but it is usually weaker for it. Interviews with staff, partners and regulars show patterns a founder is too close to see.
