Brookston Beer Bulletin

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Fairy Tale Labels From the Brothers Grimm

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Like most kids, I read (or had read to me) a lot of fables and fairy tales growing up. But a class I took in college on them reinvigorated my love of the genre, and I’ve continued to be a fan of fables ever since. Today, I have about two long shelves dedicated to collections of fairy tales from around the world, including the complete Brothers Grimm and an annotated volume of their more well-known tales. So I was excited to see the labels for the Grimm Brothers Brewhouse of Loveland, Colorado. The brewery opened in mid-2010 but somehow escaped my notice until recently. I don’t know if any of the brewery owners are brothers, or even named Grimm, but I’m guessing not, because their names are not readily available at the website or their Facebook page. But they’re certainly using the mythology of the Grimm stories to great effect in their beer names and especially the artwork, created by Ten Fold Collective, a local graphic design firm.

I just love the graphics for their labels. All of their packaging just looks amazing. I know that good packaging won’t mask a subpar beer for long, but it will enhance a good beer’s reputation and will help any beer stand out on increasingly crowded retail shelves. If their beer is only half as good as the packaging, it should be terrific. But it’s best to find out. Loveland is only about an hour north of Denver, on the way to Fort Collins. I definitely have to make a point to get out there during GABF week next year.

Here’s what the bottles look like, followed by close-ups of the labels themselves:
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Snow Drop Honey Wheat Ale

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Fearless Youth Dunkel Lager

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Little Red Cap Alt Style Ale

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Master Thief German Porter

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The Griffin Hefeweizen Ale

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The Farmer’s Daughter Oktoberfest Lager

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And these labels are part of their “Fabled Series.”

The Count Imperial Stout

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Big Bad Wolf Sticke Alt Ale

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Sooty Brother Gratzer Ale

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Weihnachts Bier Weizenbock Ale

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Mirror Mirror Imperial Kottbusser Ale

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Hare’s Bride Hefeweizen Ale

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And this is a special release they did for Valentine’s Day earlier this year.

Bleeding Heart Cherry Chocolate Porter

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Beer In Ads #770: The Story Of Bread

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Friday’s ad is another for Budweiser, also from 1942. This one is more of a history lesson equating “the story of bread,” which “may well be called The Story of Civilization.” From there it’s on to yeast, specifically baker’s yeast, for which A-B apparently was one of America’s biggest sources.

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Beer In Ads #769: To Guard Your Well-Being

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Thursday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1942. It’s a funny ad that would be totally illegal today thanks to the work of the prohibitionists and neo-prohibitionists, who have turned from trying to ban alcohol after the failure of Prohibition to instead making it as difficult as possible to sell, including increasingly stringent advertising restrictions, including that making health claims are banned, even true ones. But this ad is all about the healthy nature of beer, and the necessary vitamins and foodstuffs in beer, not to mention how R&D on beer has led to other discoveries.

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Mockingbird Beer Bottles

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Sam Wiley, a Brooklyn-based designer and advertising artist who’s done work for Anheuser-Busch, was asked to create packaging for a brand to be called “Mocking Bird Lager” and “Mockingbird Pilsner.” I don’t know if these were done for ABI – she doesn’t say — and as far as I know, no one has launched this line of beer, so it’s anybody’s guess, but it’s a great looking design. I don’t like clear glass because it’s not good for the beer, but from a purely design point-of-view she used the clear glass and the gold of the liquid to nice effect. I like that they don’t look like typical beer bottle designs and I think as the market gets more crowded, any brand’s ability to stand out on the shelf will become increasingly important.

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Beer In Ads #768: I Was Curious … By The Lake

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Wednesday’s ad is for Schlitz, from probably the late 1940s. It’s part of the long-running “I was curious” series from Schlitz that typically showed three panel showing the progression from curiosity to tasting to acceptance, a sort of mini Kubler-Ross of the three states of beer tasting. In this ad, it shows two couples by a lake. Why is it that most ads depicting couples during this time period show them separated and not interacting, boys with the boys and girls with the girls?

Schlitz-curious

Beer In Ads #763: Washington’s Headquarters At Valley Forge

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Wednesday’s ad is for Valley Forge Beer, because it was on this day, December 19, 1777 that George Washington set up camp for the winter in the small Pennsylvania town of Valley Forge. I went to the historical site a few times as a kid, including once as a Boy Scout where we followed some orienteering with maps and compass to earn some sort of ribbon, or something. I don’t usually do breweriana other than actual print advertising, but it made sense to break out the tray because of the date.

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Valley Forge Beer was brewed by the Adam Scheidt Brewery in Norristown, Pennsylvania, which is just a few miles from Valley Forge. Here’s a short history of the brewery, from a breweriana collectors website.

The Adam Scheidt Brewing Company was founded in the late 1870s and was incorporated in 1884. After Prohibition, the brewery thrived, brewing Valley Forge Beer, Ram’s Head Ale, and Prior Beer. The brewery’s name was changed to the Valley Forge Brewing Company in 1963 and, five years later, it was sold to Philadelphia’s largest brewer at the time, C. Schmidt & Sons. It continued to operate as a branch of Schmidt’s until 1975, when the facility was closed. Schmidt’s continued to brew the Valley Forge and Ram’s Head brands until the early 1980s, when Schmidt’s itself finally ceased operations.

And here’s another one of the same tray, this one showing better color.

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Frankly, I remember seeing these trays around when I was a kid, and cans of the beer, but it was never something I ever drank. I don’t ever remember even seeing it for sale where we lived. Below is a less common tray showing the same event, but by a different artist, obviously.

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