There is an old adage of “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. Well, when if comes to beer labels perhaps this adage could be slightly modified to “beauty is in the eye of the beerholder”. The ongoing thread about Anchor Brewing has of late has become a discussion about how beautiful the older versions of Anchor Brewing beer labels were. I too was a fan of those older beer labels prior to them rebranding with a more simplified motif. Please let us know which labels you are (or were) a fan of. I will kick things off with a beer label that I have always thought highly of for a variety of reasons: Rolling Rock in longneck returnable bottles. Prior to becoming a craft beer drinker, Rolling Rock was my preferred ‘mainstream’ beer. For my palate this beer provided a bit more to the flavor profile and it was appealing to my palate. Over 30 years ago I started homebrewing and my bottle of choice were those Rolling Rock returnable bottles both because they are very durable. Also, I thought the fact they had painted-on labeling meant that I did not have to make the effort to remove paper labels from those beer bottles. It has been over 30 years later and I am still using many of those returnable bottles for my homebrewed beers. Cheers!
I have too many to narrow it down to just one. But I’ll play along, St Bernardus Abt 12. it’s elegant, picture a monk seemingly enjoying a very tasty brew. Those blue and yellow colors pairs just fine. Always have liked it. (Stock photo).
I too am a fan of that label. And the fact that St. Bernardus is no longer a monk affiliated brewery didn’t change their marketing/branding strategy. If they were to ‘update’ things, would they use the figure of St. Bernardus brewmaster Wouter Dely holding the chalice? Cheers! P.S. Wouter Dely is the gentleman to the right in the below photo. He does share a trait with the monk in that he is follicle challenged so maybe if you put him in monk garb a relabeling might work!?!
There’s definitely some resemblance between Wouter and the pictured Monk in the St Bernardus label, beside he’s indeed bald, but needs to add a good twenty years to achieve the grey hair and maturity said monk appears to show. Cheers.
That can be 'fixed' the old fashioned way: makeup. Or it can be 'fixed' the newfangled way: photo editing software. Cheers! P.S. Please feel free to post other favorite labels. As the monk would say (if he could talk): the more the merrier!
I scrolled to the bottom without reading anything first just so I could post this without looking like a bandwagon jumper because I know I'm not the only one here who thinks this the epitome of a classically beautiful beer label. (Note: Diagramming the previous sentence is left as an exercise for the reader.)
As @Shanex said there are far too many favorites out there, but here are some of mine; Sierra Nevada Bigfoot (recent label) and the label for the Canadian brewed Olympia (looking now, I am still the only American to have reviewed it on BA )
Tonewood love, hey I know who sent you that I came in to post some Tonewood’s, their English labels are all stained glass look. In coming
