Belle Royale by Driftwood Brewery

A few years ago, British Columbia’s Driftwood Brewery played host to an unexpected guest. “We tried everything, including hanging a chunk of venison in the loading bay, to entice it to leave,” says Driftwood’s Jason Meyer of the Cooper’s Hawk that made a home in their brewhouse. “We finally all crowded into our tiny office and had a beer. The peace and quiet was just what the bird needed, and it decided to leave. We named our first sour beer, a Flanders Red, in its honor, and have kept the raptor theme with all our sours ever since.”

Mad Bruin, Lustrum and, of course, Belle Royale Sour Cherry Wild Ale, are just a few of the sour labels featuring some fierce fliers inked by artist Margaret Hanson. Belle Royale actually already had a label, circa 2010: a vampy femme fatale about to indulge in a couple of cherries (which account for nearly half the fermentables in the beer). In 2012, Hanson revised the label to feature the hawk.

Both versions were designed to pay homage to Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, the Parisian artist whose late-19th-century posters featured “simple shapes, heavily outlined hand-drawn text, beauty, power and frivolity,” explains Hanson. (“Don’t ask me why, I just thought it looked cool,” jokes Meyer.)

Toulouse-Lautrec’s favorite subjects were the singers and dancers who populated the cabaret scene of Paris’ glamorous Belle Époque era (think Moulin Rouge). Like these women, Belle Royale’s leading lady radiates a timeless, captivating beauty, Hanson says. She offers a gloved hand to an alighting bird of prey, set against a neutral, marbleized background right out of the Post-Impressionist playbook.

“The aesthetic of the label is a little different from what I normally do in that it was directly influenced by a significant historical artist, but my own sensibilities still come through in the medium and line quality,” Hanson explains.

The latest vintage edition of Belle Royale is on shelves now for a limited time. For Hanson, seeing her work in stores is the fun part. “The challenging part is all in the middle when you’re not sure you’re solving the problem you’ve set out to solve. That said, design would be so boring if it weren’t challenging, so I welcome the challenge wholeheartedly.” ■