(Boston, MA) – Boston Beer Co. ponders a few names for its upcoming Rauchbier and prepares to give QR codes a go.

First things first, it looks like the winning homebrew, a Rauchbier, that was featured at Gillette Stadium last year has inspired the brewery to make it available on a wider scale. Being Saturday, it is a bit tough to confirm whether this is the same beer or not. [Ed. Note: All I know is that when I went to the Ravens-Pats game, I couldn’t find it anywhere on tap and I was bummed.]

The brewery has received four different label approvals for it. Which name should win? There is “Rauchbier,” “Seven Hills Rauchbier” (named after the seven hills of Boston, some history that perhaps even most Bostonians aren’t aware of let alone the rest of the country), “Bonfire Rauchbier,” or “Roasted Rauchbier.”

No release details are available at this time.

On another note, the brewery has tentative plans to include some kind of insert or mini-booklet with future bottles of Samuel Adams Boston Lager. One of the “flaps” of the mini-book contains a QR code. If scanned with a mobile device, it will likely bring a user to the brewery’s new mobile-centric website, still under development but currently live.

The problem is that Boston Beer Co. is very “by the book” when it comes to federal guidelines (…or law?) around requiring a site visitor enter his or her birthday for access (“proving” that they are 21). Not only that but Boston Beer is among the few breweries that requires you to confirm your year of birth a second time. That presents a lot of friction to the user experience. How many people will go through the 1 or 2-minute process of entering in all these numbers on their mobile phone while shopping in the beer aisle?