Have you ever really looked at the label on your beer bottle? Breweries use all sorts of images to catch the consumer’s eye and sell their beer. Every beer I sample, I like to take the time to study the label. I look for nutritional information like alcohol by volume (ABV), original gravity (OG) and the International Bittering Units (IBU). Then I look for stories about the brew, maybe tasting notes or hops and malts used.

Red Brick and Lagunitas have some very funny anecdotes on their labels and 6-pack packing. After I have read everything I can about the beer, I look at the images on the front, back and sides. Some breweries use real artist’s compositions like Flying Dog and Ralph Steadman or Bierbrouwerij De Koningshoeven Tilburg’s Dutch Brown and Hieronymus Bosch. The Tilburg label is very interesting. The portrait is “The Birdheaded Monster” and only a small excerpt of Bosch’s famous work, a three-panel masterpiece entitled “The Garden of Earthly Delights” painted in 1504. 

Dogfish Head features work from a few different artists including famous musician Jon Langford, graphic artist Tara Pherson and Marq Spusta who has done work for the Sex Pistols, the Roots, the Black Crowes and Widespread Panic. Rogue uses the theme of a man or a woman throwing up a triumphant fist with one hand while holding an overflowing mug of brew in the other.

Most breweries that feature the Bock or Doppelbock styles have the iconic goat in some form on their label. The theory is, when Bocks were originally brewed, it was around the time of Capricorn, the symbol of the goat. Some breweries use simple but famous logos such as Guinness and their harp and Bass and their red triangle, which is the very first trademarked logo at the British Intellectual Property Office. Bass trademarked it on January 1, 1876, after the 1875 UK Trademark Registration Act came into effect.

So next time you crack open a cold one, stop for a minute and look at your beer bottle. You may notice that Left Hand’s Sawtooth Ale spells L-E-F-T in sign language or Orval Trappist Ale has a trout with the
monastery’s founder Mathilda’s lost wedding band in its mouth.    

Adam Shugan, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits Beer Consultant – Archer Road, Gainesville

Follow him on Twitter @abcbeeradams