Midnight Special by Jailhouse Brewing Co.

Of all the things we think of when we reach for a beer, jail is (hopefully) not at the top of the list. So the Solitary Confinement series from Jailhouse Brewing already has originality going for it. But label artist Jonathan Richter also manages to distill the experience of a prisoner into the language of beer—from Conjugal Visit Red Ale to Last Request Barleywine, and especially Jailhouse’s 16th anniversary brew, an India-style Black Ale called “Midnight Special.”

“With Midnight Special, the deep, impenetrable darkness, the bitterness in the IPA part, the sweet smoothness—it all brought me to a surreal place in which a guy is having an epiphany,” says Richter.

The eponymous song’s chorus—“Let the Midnight Special shine her ever-loving light on me”—is usually interpreted to mean that the singer wishes “the Midnight Special, which was a train that would pass by the prison at night, would carry him away from his confinement,” Richter explains. “I love Carl Sandburg’s take on the line to mean that it would be better to die—be run over by the train—than be a prisoner.”

Richter took that concept to a large piece of butcher paper on his studio wall, drawing quickly and in a “loose style” with charcoal and conte. (“I also tend to play the car-washing scene from Cool Hand Luke on a loop inside my head when concepting label art,” he adds.)

What he came up with was the stark-contrast, dramatic image of a prisoner illuminated by the headlights of a train careening through the prison walls, just feet from the cell cot where our character sits. “The guy is almost expectant and welcoming,” Richter says, “and even though it is a frozen moment in a chaotic scene, I like how it feels very calm.”

The image’s deep black and gray tones imply the “impenetrable darkness” of the beer, while the hyper-blended, lush look of the charcoal evokes that “sweet smoothness.”

A friend of Jailhouse founder Glenn Golden, Richter has been designing labels for the brewery since it opened in Hampton, Ga., in 2009. “The most fun about working on these beer labels is the interaction with Glenn and his wife and assistant, Melissa,” Richter says. “Did I mention that the beer is really good?” ■