As discussed in a previous post, I have ranked each Michigan
brewery on its beer labeling using a composite score from 4 categories: Art,
variety, creativity, and information.
Total scores can range from 4-30, with high scores indicating better
labeling according to my admitting biased judgment and criteria.
Note that the quality of the beer, brewer, or brewpub has nothing to do
with the scores—this is simply my assessment of the labels.
I plan to present the results in reverse
order.
Here are the results for those
who scored in the lower third.
Kuhnhenn Brewing Company. Total Score: 11. Rank: 36 of
36.
The worst beer labeling for a Michigan brewery was from one
of my favorite breweries—Kuhnhenn Brewing Company. This brewery makes a wide range of really
great beer, most of which are available only at the brewery and have no labels
at all. They do however sell some of
their beer in bottles, most notably 4th Dementia Olde Ale and Winter
Solstice 9.
I like the play on
“dimension” vs “dementia” and they got credit for that bit of creativity.
The labels, however, look like they were done
by someone learning how to use a drawing program on their computer.
The labels are, well, rather boring.
They put the alcohol content on the bottles
so this scored them some points, but the variety was very low.
I hope that Kuhnhenn starts to bottle more of
their beer and once they do, I’m sure the labeling deficiencies will be
addressed.
Wolverine State Brewing Company: Total Score: 15; Rank:
35 of 36.
With a score that was close to the worst, another wonderful
Michigan brewery, Wolverine State Brewing Company, is not paying due attention
to their beer labels Wolverine State makes a wide range of really great beer,
most of which can only be purchased at the taproom or various restaurants. They do bottle and sell at least 4 varieties
of beer. The basic graphics among the
labels, with some exceptions, is very similar—the brewery logo, an outline map
of Michigan, and the beer style. The
different styles have different colors and none of the beers have their own
names (they are simply named by their style).
The one exception is “Massacre,” which was only sold at the brewery late last year. This beer has
a label that depicts the scratch-mark “W” logo on a wood panel, and a neck
that was dipped in wax.
The concept was
still not that artistic, but a strong step in the right direction.
Wolverine puts the alcohol level on their
labels and their web address, but could be more informative.
The variety and creativity of the labeling
schemes were clearly lacking.
I have heard rumors that they might start bottling some of
the excellent craft beers that are available in the taproom. I hope that they rethink their labels when
they expand their bottled beers.
As a complete side note, in my research I came across a
rather cool old beer bottle label (circa late 1930s) from a brewery in Pontiac,
Michigan called Wolverine Brewing Company and the beer was called Dark
Horse—rather ironic, given the brewery a little further down on our list.
You can see it here:
http://usbeerlabels.com/webstore/product_detail.php?prodid=636.
Dark Horse Brewing Company. Total Score: 16; Rank: tied
for 32 of 36.
Three breweries tied for 32nd place with a score
of 16. Dark Horse Brewing Company was
one of them. Dark Horse sells a wide
range of beers in bottles, including several seasonal beers and one of my
favorite Michigan beers, Crooked Tree IPA (I had a keg of this beer at my last
birthday party). This brewery’s labels
are mostly disappointing. In the past few years, however, they have been making
an effort to improve their labels. Years
ago, I remember being shocked that such good beer was being sold with such poor
labels.
The labels used to be as close
to basic as one could get—black and white, some text, and a squiggly line.
(Another brewery has some labels that were even more basic
More on that in a later post.)
In recent years, they have added some color
and some very nice labels, such as the one for Crooked Tree IPA. The brewery
has also had guest artists develop artwork for some of their labels (Scotty
Karate and Perkulator are two examples), yet this artwork is not very pleasing
and vaguely disturbing.
I think this
would be a great idea if they changed the labels each year as is implied on the label where they say "Guest Artist #1".
The newer labels
generally include the alcohol level, but would be improved by more information
such as the inspiration for some of the artwork. For example, a brief statement about who
Scotty Karate is would help us understand the artwork for that particular
label. The brewery has recently updated
their once-poor website, and I think the labels are also being updated. This is a good trend for a great brewery.
 |
| My favorite label from Dark Horse Brewing Company |
King Brewing Company. Total Score 16; Rank: tied for 32
of 36
King Brewing Company also tied for 32
nd
place.
I’ve had a hard time constructing
the history of this brewery located in Pontiac, Michigan.
I have in my collection a few bottles from
this brewery that are around 10 years old.
After that, I thought the brewery went out of business.
Indeed, their website says that they went out
of business, yet I purchased some King beer somewhat recently.
Whatever their story, I included them in the
competition.
The labels from King
Brewing are simply uninspired and run-of-the-mill. I like the label for Two Fisted Ale, mainly
because of the name, but the others could use a serious update. The labels could also include more information. If the brewery is out of business, my sincere apologies and best wishes for getting the brewery back in business.
Red Jacket Brewing Company. Total Score: 16; Rank: tied
for 32 of 36.
The third brewery that was tied for 32
nd was from
Red Jacket Brewing located way up in the Keyweenaw Peninsula, at Calumet.
They claim to be Michigan’s most Northern brewery but I think that crown goes to Brickside Brewery in Copper Harbor, Michigan.
They
only brew one beer and call it oatmeal express.
It is an oatmeal, coffee stout.
You can only get it at the brewery and they only brew in half-barrel
batches. They also developed a label for the beer (Cheers to them!).
Here’s the label and a description of the
beer:
http://www.michiganhousecafe.com/brewpub.html.
The label itself is fairly interesting with a railroad
theme. I gave them 6 out of 10 for artistry and creativity. There is obviously no variety. The label itself has little information past
the name of the beer, but since it was not meant to stand alone as would a beer
bottle label, I judged the information category by what was on the
website. They include a lot of
information about the recipe and the history of the beer. But, unfortunately, this
description has no hard facts about alcohol level or bitterness, so points were
lost for this. It would be interesting
to visit this place sometime.
Cheboygan Brewing Company. Total Score: 17; Rank tied for 30 of
36.
Two more breweries
round out the ranking of 30
th or worse with total scores of 17.
One of these is the Cheboygan Brewing
Company. The labeling scheme is tight and efficient, but not very inspiring nor
creative.
The beers generally lack their
own name (they are generally named by the beer style), which means it can be hard to be creative.
I like the Lighthouse Amber label, but there
is little variety across the labels. I believe that only the Lighthouse Amber
is sold in bottles, so I judged the information content on the other labels
based on the text accompanying them on their website:
http://cheboyganbrewingcompany.com/beer.html.
There was generally good information, so high
points there.
There is room for
improving these labels.
I have only tried the Lighthouse Amber and I thought it was tasted good and was well brewed. You don't have to take my word for it--it says so right on the label.
 |
| My favorite label from Cheboygan Brewing Company |
Big Rock Chophouse and Brewery. Total Score: 17;
Rank tied for 30 of 36.
Big Rock appears to have several beers that they bottle and
sell out of the brewery/restaurant.
I have none of their bottles in my collection
and could find little on the Internet past what they have on their website:
http://www.bigrockchophouse.com/brewery.html
The labels are pretty good, but not outstanding. I like the stylistic artwork and there is some
variety across the labels. Without
having actual examples of the labels, I judged the information content based on
the website. The information that they
have is good, but where is the ABV%? I really fail to understand why some
breweries do not include this information for their patrons. My favorite label from this brewery is
Platinum Blonde Pilsner, with its stylistic Marilyn Monroe icon.
Look for more results on my next post.
Cheers,
Zymus
