Sorry about the long delay in getting to the final results of the
Michigan Beer Label Competition. I’ve been
traveling a lot and then lost one of my favorite people to enjoy a beer with. A week before my brother lost his battle to
the horrible disease, ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), we shared several beers from Avery Brewing
Company. I bought them at the Avery taproom
and brought them to hospice where he could try a few milliliters at a time. We put the beer in his mouth by syringe so he
could taste the beer and then put the rest in his feeding tube. My brother was a courageous soul who had a
keen appreciation for craft beer. Cheers
big brother!
 |
| Avery Taproom, 2011 |
Now on to the top five breweries
in the Michigan Beer Label Competition.
Arbor Brewing Company/Corner Brewery. Score: 26; Rank: Tied for 5th
Two breweries tied for the fifth slot in the competition with a stellar
score of 26 out of 30. I’ve combined the
Arbor Brewing Company and the Corner Brewery because they are owned by the same
folks and the two locations are very much linked. Now that they are also opening a brewery in
India, I may have to include that location as well, assuming that I could find
some of their labels.
Arbor Brewing has recently changed their beer labeling approach and
have made their new labels sexy and artistic.
My ratings of their labels are based primarily on these new styles which
I really like. My favorite label is
Bollywood Blonde, which features a smiling blond girl in a classic Bollywood
dance pose. This woman looks vaguely familiar to me, like I might have seen her
behind the bar at the Corner Brewery in Ypslianti. I highly recommend both of these brewpubs,
even if there is no blond beauty behind the bar when you visit.The brewery has great variety in their labels, with Buzzsaw American IPA on the opposite end of the scale from the Arbor Blondes. My only complaint is the lack of consistent inclusion of the alcohol content on the labels.
Bell’s Brewery. Score: 26; Rank: Tied for 5th.
Also tied for 5th place in the label competition is
Michigan’s largest brewery, located in Comstock near the city of
Kalamazoo. I have loved Bell’s beer for
two decades and it was one of the great pleasures I discovered when I moved to
Michigan. Bell’s Brewery has my all-time
favorite labeling scheme with their Third Coast Beer. As you may know, Michigan has 3,288 miles of
coastline with the various Great Lakes.
This is more coastline than any other state except Alaska. Bell’s Brewery capitalized on this and developed
labels for Third Coast Beer that depicted maps of small portions of the
Michigan coastline. Presumably, if you
had a complete collection of labels, you would be able to put them all together
and have a map of the entire 3,288 miles of coastline. I have 21 different labels and I’m told there
are about 5 more. Once I complete the
collection, I just might try to put them together digitally. They have a few other series like this,
including Bell’s Amber Ale. Kudos!
Bell’s frequently mixes up their labeling and over the years has put
out so many different beers that the variety is staggering. This also means that they had a series of
labels that are without questions the most boring and unimaginative I have ever
seen--just black lettering on a white label.
This is kinda funny considering the brewery and their portfolio of
beers.
I have several favorites as you can see here:
New Holland Brewing Company. Score: 29; Rank: Tied for 2nd.
Three breweries tied for second place in the Michigan Beer Label
Competition with outstanding scores of 29 out of 30 points. One of these was
the New Holland Brewing Company hailing from Holland in the Western part of the
state. I love the Mad Hatter theme they
have for many of their beer labels and how they shake it up Hatter character
for their vintage-dated Hatter beer. “10/6” indeed.
The brewery also has many other cool labels, such as PHΦ Divine Beer
with its ode to art and architecture.
You just can’t go wrong with a couple of da Vinci works, the Acropolis
in Athens, and the Pyramid of Cheops on the label. I also like the eerie Night Tripper Imperial
Stout label.
The brewery does a good job of including useful information on the
labels and the beer itself is among the
best in Michigan.
Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales.
Score 29; Rank: Tied for 2nd.
Also tied for second is Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales in Dexter. This brewery may well be Michigan’s most
internationally recognized brewery. I
recently found Bam Noire being served in a little craft beer bar in Italy. How cool is that!
Jolly Pumpkin does an exemplary job of maintaining brand recognition
while having great variety in their beer labels. The labels range from fun to mysterious,
while still being uniquely Jolly Pumpkin.
The brewer also includes a few sentences about each beer on the labels
and my only complaint is that IBU’s are never listed and the alcohol content is
present only on a few labels. For some reason
I like the fact that many of the beer names are difficult to pronounce.
Among my favorite labels from this brewery are: Fuego del Ontoño, Sobrehumano
Palena 'ole, and Madrugada Obscura Dark Dawn Stout. If you like barrel-aged sour ales, then Jolly
Pumpkin is your brewery.
Greenbush Brewing Company. Score 29; Rank Tied for 2nd.
A tie for second place also goes to a newcomer
from Sawyer—the Greenbush Brewing Company.
They just recently began selling their beer in bottles around the state
and what a pleasure it was to try these excellent beers and gaze appreciatively
at the artistic and imaginative labels.
The artist or artists should be given a pat on the back and several
cases of free beer.
Perhaps more than any other brewery, the Greenbush labels are simply interesting to look at. The art and the beer names work well together to tease the mind. The labels also all have IBU and ABV. The brewery also includes a few sentences on the label about the beer. These could use a little work. If as much thought was put into these as was put into the names and artwork, these labels would be perfect. What does “It’s a mystification!” mean anyway?
Founder’s Brewing Company. Score 30; Rank:
1st.
The winner of the 2013 Michigan Beer Label Competition is the wonderful
Founder’s Brewing Company located in the great beer city of Grand Rapids. Founder’s beer is one of Michigan’s beer-crown
jewels. The brewery’s labeling scheme seem
to tell stories and I get the impression that if I drink Founder’s beer long
enough I’ll eventually get to hear the entire story. Who knew that the Old Curmudgeon had a better
half until last year? Where does the
Dirty Bastard fit into the story? The reversible-figure
dude in Double Trouble IPA must have an excellent back story. Could it be something to do with the Devil
dancer? Maybe clues will be revealed in
the next Back Stage Series offering.
I really like the artwork and variety and they consistently put the
beer specifications on the label. They
also occasionally have great explanations about the beer. If you have not tried Bolt Cutter yet, the
story behind the beer name is pretty entertaining. Congratulations to the Founder’s Brewing
Company for setting a standard of excellence for not only great beer, but also
for really cool labels.
Final Word
The label competition was entirely done by me, Zymus, and reflects my
humble and admittedly biased opinion. I
tried to include all Michigan breweries that had developed labeling for their
products. My apologies go out to Liberty
Street Brewing and Right Brain brewing who began selling their beer in bottles
after I had started presenting the results in Beer Avatar. My apologies also to those breweries I should
have included, but somehow missed. If
you have comments about the competition, or any of my other posts, there is a
place at the bottom of each post to state your opinion.
Cheers,
Zymus
