Odd Animal labels

Label Art is subjective. I generally side with the less is more school. I think the Bruery does a great job with their style choices. I like the distinctive B of Brooklyn Brewery. Just two examples off the top of my head.

In my interwebs beer travels, I come across other labels and wonder what the heck is going on? So intermittently, I will post up some labels and make my snarky comments then let the readers take over, if the muse of commenting strikes.

Here is the Craft Beer label discussion – Animal Edition

First up is Bitter American from 21st Amendment

I get the whole monkey and space thing. But I can’t quite make the leap from Bitter American to outer space. I am sure there is an explanation but I can’t imagine that it is a simple one. Plus the monkey looks damn old. It looks like the same artist did Fireside Chat and that also looked a little off. Makes you look at it twice. Maybe that was the aim.

Our second label is from Captured by Porches with Cuddly Panda Porter

I like the bright color palette that CbP uses. But the traditional bird morphed into a bear strikes me as off. Seems a little shoe-horned to me. As in trying to stick with a theme (birds) when maybe a little more change like just a bear drawing would have worked better.

That’s my cockeyed opinion. What say you?

Food Carts + Craft Beer =

In my usual better late than never style, I ran across this interesting bit of news from the New School Beer Blog.

Portland already has Prost! which is a lovely German beer bar located right next to a food cart pod so this next evolution sounds promising. Maybe the LA area can try this too! Verdugo and Eagle Rock invite trucks in but if you don’t care for that particular truck that night then you are out of luck (plus the lines can get enormous). A group of carts would minimize both problems.

The Firkin for March 2010

Words like green, recycle, envio-friendly are seen alot in the craft beer industry. Primarily because you have to be a bit of a rebel to start a brewery. And, unfortunately, earth awareness, is still a fringe effort.

That is why I am all for ballooning a trend that I have heard about from various beer media sources. Captured by Porches Brewery in Portland charges extra (I believe $1) for their bottles. So you buy their Invasive Species IPA and it costs more. But! You can return the bottle to the brewery (unwashed) and you get your buck back.
The same deal for retailers who buy a bunch of Miskatonic Dark Rye.

Because the bottles cost a bit over a buck, CBP ends up not losing any money on the deal and they help the environment!

I think that any new brewery should be offered a tax incentive to enter this type of program. Or if money is a problem, how about offering speedee service on label approval in exchange for a bottle return program?

Every day we read about new breweries opening. Eagle Rock in California, Revolution in Illinois to name two. Imagine if all the breweries opening in 2010 came on board as a bottle return participant. That is a lot of glass being recycled.

Bottled Invasive Species

from The Oregonian via Captured by Porches
cbp
“We just got TTB label approval for our two beers that we will have in returnable bottles. We have sent out a few cases to choice accounts to test the waters, and all indications show that Portlanders are happy to pay the dollar deposit additional for a returnable, reusable bottle (or else they are home brewers that recognize that a dollar is a great price for a 750ml flip top!). Either way, we are super excited not only to be finally bottling, but to be doing so in a manner that breaks the ‘use once and destroy’ stream. (I have a ton of statistics and facts about how costly glass is to recycle).
Our IPA should hit the shelves of bottle shops and one New Season location on Jan 15; our ‘Friday’ beer is set for release on Feb 1.”