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Do you choose your beer by the label?

Rob Moran

Colour-coordinated: Pantone beer cans by Txaber.
Colour-coordinated: Pantone beer cans by Txaber.Supplied

"Don't judge a book by its cover" is some admirable childhood advice we tend to forget at the local bottle-o – it's the rare drinker who hasn't scanned the shelves and picked a drop based on a striking sticker, something with pink roses or a hand-sketched Varga girl.

Spanish agency Txaber recently created every designer/dipso's dream, with a series of tinnies based on the Pantone colour system. The cans were designed to reflect the exact hue of the brew swimming inside them, from a shimmering yellow for the pale lager (Pantone code 604C) to a liquorice black for the imperial stout (Pantone code 426C). Needless to say, "I want that!" was the unanimous cry across social media.

While we can all appreciate the simple beauty of a VB stubby with its iconic shield on a brown bottle, the craft beer revolution has further expanded the label games. Milton Glaser – the 84-year-old legend who designed the classic Brooklyn Brewery look back in the '80s (and, perhaps more famously, the 'I Heart NY' logo) – called it "creating affection": idiosyncratic looks that highlight a more personal, hands-on approach to brewing.

DIY bombers and growlers from Marrickville's Batch Brewing.
DIY bombers and growlers from Marrickville's Batch Brewing.Supplied
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You can see that spirit in famous North American craft breweries like California's Sierra Nevada or Oregon's Deschutes and Rogue, with their agriculturally-skewed mountain men and Sierra-vibing visions of pine forests, sequoias and the vast Pacific. Likewise, Scandinavian breweries Tool and Mikkeler are known for their culture-jamming designs, reflecting their maverick attitude to brewing (beers made with chipotle, papaya, sour milk) – Mikkeler boasts a full-time art director, while Tool's infamously had their 'F--k Art, Let's Drink' tripel repeatedly denied placement on US shop shelves.

Closer to home, local breweries are joining the eye-catching ranks. Moo Brew in Tasmania, for example, has arty links entrenched in its roots: originally part of Hobart's Museum of Old and New Art, its memorable labels - all grisly Australiana, designed by local artist John Kelly - are described by the brewers as a direct protest against the "corporatisation of art by the Australian Arts Council."

With bottle shops and bar taps filled with hundreds of different small brews – you'll wreck your liver trying to sample the endless selection at next week's Sydney Craft Beer Week - burgeoning brewers need to do something to stand out, says Andrew Fineran from Marrickville's Batch Brewing.

Danish brewery Mikkeller's distinctive label design for their 1000 IBU IPA.
Danish brewery Mikkeller's distinctive label design for their 1000 IBU IPA.Supplied

"I think when you're scanning the fridges for something to buy, you're always looking for something interesting that pops out," says Fineran, who comes from a marketing background. "I mean, it's got to be backed up by good quality – you'll look into reviews, or what you've heard – but the label's a massive part in that instant decision."

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In line with their DIY operation, Batch Brewing sport a striking minimalist look, a whisper echo of Rivera's proletariat murals: an apron-ed brewer, lugging a keg and offering some lucky drinker a hefty stein. They finish each bottle with a rubber-stamped swing-tag - materials bought from the office supplies shop two doors down - a decision based as much on practical concerns as aesthetic ones.

"Like the beer, the labels are all very handcrafted – we're literally sitting here stamping the tags on the tasting bar after we close," laughs Fineran. "It allows us to be creative and flexible, because we're not brewing to a label. We stamp the tags in different colours to identify which beer is what – the American Pale Ale's always red, the IPA's green - but the next one will have different hops and a different name, so with the stamps we can just change things as we create them."

Mash Brewing's award-winning Copycat American IPA, with art by Heesco.
Mash Brewing's award-winning Copycat American IPA, with art by Heesco.Supplied

Last year, WA's Mash Brewing introduced an ongoing 'Illustrated Ales Series', where they hand over design duties to local artists. Labels so far include the Challenger English IPA featuring a bare-knuckled East End geezer sketched by Melbourne illustrator Nick Young, and the Copycat American IPA with a lunging panther from Melbourne artist Heesco (the beer recently won Champion Australian Beer and Best IPA in Show at this year's Australian International Beer Awards).

"Craft beer is an art form, so we thought it made sense to align ourselves with other creatives," says Mash manager, Nathan Liascos. "We spoke to street artists and painters, gave them the beer name, and they had creative license to come up with the idea. In the future, we might even do a photographic ales series, and we're currently 3D-printing some hand-drawn decals, sort of Wild Style designs. They're pretty eye-catching."

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"We're just doing what we believe in and what we like," adds Liascos, noting that Mash's canvas-y labels aren't necessarily attempts at distinguishing themselves from their big market, CUB-type competition. "But it's very crowded in the marketplace these days, so it ends up working both ways - these local artists get a bit of recognition, and it helps us stand out in the fridge, too."

Meanwhile, the rest of us get a lucky dip of visual riches at the local bottle shop, and something pretty to share on Instagram. Who knows, sometimes the beer even ends up being great, too.

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