Here’s the next round of results for the Michigan Beer Label Competition, exclusively on Beer Avatar. This post discusses the breweries that were ranked between 24th through 28th out of the 36 breweries in the competition.
Round
Barn Winery, Distillery, Brewery. Score
18; Rank: tied for 28 of 36
I’ve
never made it the Baroda, Michigan tasting room of our 28th ranked
brewery, but I have enjoyed beer from the Round Barn Brewery at beer festivals. Based
on the information from their website, they sell 4 types of beers in bottles
and several more in growlers at the brewery.
They have developed labels for their 8 beer brands: http://www.roundbarnwinery.com/brewery.php.  |
| Some example labels from Round Barn |
The
general iconography for many of the labels is the round barn facility made to
look like a beer-stein, complete with top and frothy beer. The idea is creative and cool but gets
overused across the labels. The icon
makes a great logo. I prefer to see something
other than the logo on the labels. As
such, the brewery scored low on variety.
Not having any actual labels to consult, I relied on the website for
determining the information content.
Kudos for including the alcohol content for each of the beers and a
brief description as well. I’m not
likely, however, to try the Cocoa Stout as a float with vanilla ice
cream. My favorite label from this
brewery is Black Magic, a chocolate stout made with black raspberries.
Keweenaw
Brewing Company. Score 18; tied for 28
of 36
Also
tied for 28th is the Keweenaw Brewing Company, located in the far
North of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in Houghton. The brewery sells several of
their products in cans around the state.
I have not tried all of their beers, but I like the ones that I have
tasted.
The
labeling scheme is based on the local copper mining industry. The artwork is basic and the expression of
the names in the art is straightforward.
For example, Pick Ax Blonde Ale shows a buxom young blonde holding a
pick ax. The label for Widow Maker Black
Ale is holding what looks like some sort of Star Wars weapon, but the story on
the side of the can explains that it is a pneumatic drill that, while
increasing productivity, also produced a lot of dust that was inhaled and later
caused fatal health problems. I like
that story, but the artwork could be greatly improved.
As
for the information content of the labeling, kudos for including some
information about the beer, but points were lost because the alcohol content is
nowhere to be found. You can’t find it
on the website either. Yes, that’s a bit
of a pet peeve of mine. I’m looking
forward to trying more beer from this brewery.
Great
Baraboo Brewing Company. Score 19; tied
for 24 of 36
Four
breweries tied for 24th, with a score of 19. One of these was the Great Baraboo Brewing
Company, located North of Detroit in Clinton Township, Michigan. As far as I know, none of the beers from this
brewery are sold in bottles, but the brewery decided to develop labels for
their five signature beer nonetheless. I
heartily applaud this decision. My
assessment of the labels was based solely on their website: http://greatbaraboo.com/Beers_2.html.
In
general, the labels are pretty good, with decent interpretation of the beer
names. The names themselves, however,
are a bit odd. Kings Peak Cariboo Wheat,
Shark Tooth Bay, Snake Eye Canyon Red Ale—where are these places? Perhaps these names fit in with the Australian (??) theme of
the restaurant? I’ll have to visit the
brewery some day and find out more. At
any rate, call me a Michigan purist, but I think that Michigan craft beer should celebrate
Michigan.
Detroit
Beer Company. Score 19; tied for 24 of
36
The
Detroit Beer Company puts out a scattered array of beers, yet the labels all
seem to coalesce into a brand. I like
this. I also like that the names reflect
the uniqueness and character of the city for which the brewery is named after
and is located.
One odd thing is that
most of the bottled beer that is sold around the state, isn’t brewed in
Detroit, but rather is contract brewed in other locations such as Brighton,
Michigan. Overlooking that issue, the
labels are generally artistic, but could be improved. The labels are informative with IBUs and
original gravity listed on some of the labels, while others let us know about
the beer and the name.
Arcadia
Brewing Company. Score 19; tied for 24
of 36
Also
tied for 24th are the labels from one of my favorite Michigan
breweries, Arcadia Brewing Company. This
brewery just celebrated its 15th anniversary and during that time
have redone their signature beer labels.
The older labels were what I would call “still life” artwork that
captured a moment, while the newer labels are stylized graphic art. I hate to say it, but I prefer the older
labels. The newer labels do have better information content, including the
alcohol content.
 |
| Old label |
 |
| New label |
Arcadia Brewing had some really cool labels but they now have some that are way too boring for the excellent beer that they are selling. An example of one of the cool labels was Cocoa Loco, a chocolate stout—an excellent beer with a fun label. Another excellent beer from Arcadia is Cereal Killer barleywine (a fun play on words with tons of label potential).
 |
| Old label |
 |
| New label |
Rochester
Mills Beer Company. Score 19; tied for 24 of 36.
The final brewery that is tied for 24th place is
the Rochester Mills Beer Company, located in Rochester, Michigan. This brewery also sells 4 of their beers in
cans. I like the fact that the cans are
larger (16 oz; 1 pint) than the usually cans that contain 12 oz of beer. A pint is the perfect size.
The labeling scheme features mostly fancy text and little
other artwork, except for a stylized building that I assume is the
brewery. The labels are colorfully
balanced and have similar enough features that they have good brand recognition. There is little creativity in the
labels. The cans are chock full of
information, including a Q&A about why the beer is in cans and why the cans
are pint-sized. They also say a little
about the beer and the brewery. The only
thing lacking is…yes, you guessed it…no reporting of the alcohol level. If you haven’t already had it, I recommend
trying the Cornerstone IPA—lovely hops.
That's it for the breweries ranked between 24th and 18th. More results will be posted soon.
Cheers,
Zymus
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