The Classic Generator constructs a beer name using a hand-crafted artisinal algorithm. No robots involved. Just good ole human reckoning. First, the algorithm randomly chooses a craft beer name "template." An example of a template might be


There are several templates. Each emulates a common way craft beers are named. Then, the algorithm reaches into a big grab bag of words and pulls out a random adjective or noun or whatever is needed and plugs it into the template. That big bag of words is huge and creates a lot of variety in the combinations. I've tried to weed out some of the very un-craft-beer-like words. What's left are the more earthy, rustic relics of our language (and of course anything I think would be funny.)

The final result is hopefully something that could be a craft beer name and if not, at least is absurd enough to entertain us.

The Trained Machine Learning Generator displays a name that a learning program came up with all by its lovely cold-hearted self. I used a character-level language modeling program called Torch-RNN to teach the program to speak "craft beer." This basically means I showed it thousands and thousands of existing craft beer names (pulled from the Untappd API) until it started to pick out patterns in the names and make its own approximations. Some of the names are total gibberish. Some are pure genius.

Feel free to play around with the Craft Beer Name Generator API to develop your own applications or integrate random craft beer names into your own services. Currently, the API is free to use without special authorization. Requests are limited to one call per second but if you have a use case that requires a more relaxed limit, please let me know and we can discuss options. Also, if there are additional API features you'd like, let me know and I'll consider developing them.

URL:

https://www.craftbeernamegenerator.com/api/api.php

URL Parameters:

https://www.craftbeernamegenerator.com/api/api.php?type=classic

or

https://www.craftbeernamegenerator.com/api/api.php?type=trained

Example Success Response:

{
    "status":200,
    "status_message":"Valid Request",
    "data":
    {
        "generator_type":"classic",
        "name":"Mastermind's Syndrome Ale",
        "style":"English Brown Ale"
    }
}

or

{
    "status":200,
    "status_message":"Valid Request",
    "data":
    {
        "generator_type":"trained",
        "name":"Bird Lager",
        "style":"Flanders Red Ale"
    }
}

Example Error Response:

{
    "status":400,
    "status_message":"Invalid Request",
    "data":"null"
}

or

{
    "status":400,
    "status_message":"Exceeded Rate Limit of 1 call per 1 second",
    "data":"null"
 }

My name is Cameron Kleinert and I'm a freelance web developer in the Raleigh, North Carolina area. If you like this site and want to see more of my work you can check out my website at cameronkleinert.com. Also feel free to email me at cameron.kleinert@gmail.com or shoot me a message below. Thanks!