New Labels from Dogfish Head – The Perfect Disguise and Vibrate P’Ocean

A few months ago I posted that the new artist for Dogfish Head’s off-centered art series was Portland, Oregon’s Dan Stiles.

Dan had lent his artistic talents to DFH’s 75 Minute IPA, which will be available this coming November through January, the usual first beer label for the incoming art series artist.

This time we get to view Dan’s take on DFH’s double IPA, The Perfect Disguise. The beer was also part of the series last go around, being released February through April of this year. The brewery has yet to release their 2020 beer release calendar, but I would take the fact that the label is coming through the system now as a possible sign that you can expect to see it in the same slot next year.

The label continues Dan’s more industrial style that was prevalent on his 75 minute label, and plays off the name with a hop cone trying to pass itself off as the bird in a Cuckoo clock – complete with a tied on, fake beak.

The second beer label to recently come through is this nice little piece of art for an upcoming beer called Vibrant P’Ocean (get it? Potion? These guys!) which is a collaboration with the Belgian Rodenbach brewery.

The beer is billed as a meld between a 2-year foeder sour and an elderberry, elderflower, fleur de-sel kettle sour. Ok, that’s a lot to unpack, let’s have a stab at it.

A foeder is, basically speaking, a large wooden barrel and is used not only in wine making but also for aging beers like sours, lambics, and gueuzes at European breweries like Brouwerij Boon and Rodenbach; and American breweries like New Belgian and Crooked Stave. The main difference in the use of these barrels seems to be that unlike wine making where barrels are usually store on their sides, foeders are normally used standing on end like the ones you’ve seen being used as tables at breweries and Cracker Barrel.

The elderberries and flowers are pretty straight forward but what about fleur de-sel? The name translates as “flower of salt” and is a salt that forms as a crust on seawater as it evaporates. The traditional use for it is as a “finishing salt”, in other words it is not normally used during the cooking process but sprinkled on the food just before serving.

And, as you might guess a kettle sour is a sour beer that is soured and fermented in a stainless steel tank.

Yeah, I think that covers it. I’ve linked some of the info that I pulled together from my research should you want some more in-depth information. Also, here is a recent article on an American company who is manufacturing Foeders.

No word on when we can expect to see Vibrant P’Ocean on the shelves.

New Label Art – One of My Fav DE Beers Comes to Cans

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that I have made no apologies that Oyster Stout is one of my favorite styles, and that Fordham and Dominion’s Rosie Parks is not only a very fine representation of the style, but one of my favorite beers brewed in Delaware.

Back a bit in time, I was asked by local Newspaper guy Ryan Cormier to list my 15 favorite beers in Delaware, and Rosie Parks was at the top of that list.

Sadly at that time, I found out that the brewer had no plans to brew it in the near future. But, after divorcing themselves from ABInv and regaining total control over their brewery(s) (or maybe not having to do with any of that at all) apparently the brewery(s) has decided that it was time to bring this beer back under its new package branding (it was on this year’s release calendar, I just wasn’t paying attention when I posted it several months ago).

Of course, that means, new logo and – cans. Now don’t get me wrong, I loved the old big bottle format and I thought its label really captured the essence of the beer. But F&D are going through a well deserved rebranding and to be honest, I’m just happy to learn that one of my favorite beers is returning to the shelves and as I have stated in the past, I love the convenience of cans.

If F&D hold to their calendar it looks like we can expect to see Rosie around the September time frame with proceeds benefiting the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. Can’t wait.

And Next Year’s Artist for Dogfish Head’s Off-Centered Art Series is…..

Recently the label for this winter’s release of Dogfish Head’s 75 Minute IPA came through the system, and as I stated in an earlier post, it would probably be the first label for next year’s selected artist for the brewery’s popular Off-Centered Art Series.

Well, once I saw the label I had no doubt this was the case as gone was Michael Hacker‘s whimsical mad scientist art work, replaced by a more industrial style of art featuring what appears to be a stylistic man’s face wearing a hat and a monocle who is holding a hop and a maple leaf (a nod that 75 Minute is brewed with maple syrup). The label keeps its overall blue on gray color palette, with the label artwork continuing to echoing it as in previous years.

So who is responsible for this new and interesting label? Say hello to Dan Stiles, an artist currently working out of Portland, Oregon where he has lent his artistic style and talents to everything from indy bands to major corporations. From his Website:

Over the past twenty years, Dan has collaborated with everyone from indie bands to major corporations in creating posters, identities, advertising, custom packaging, and limited edition collectable art and merchandise. His clients range from Arctic Monkeys, Sonic Youth, and Wilco to the X Games, IBM, and Nickelodeon. He draws from a broad swath of influences including skateboard graphics, album covers, modern art, children’s books, comics, psychedelia, and vintage advertising. Dan has published several children’s books as well as a monograph of his work entitled One Thing Leads to Another. He lives with his wife and daughters in Portland, Oregon.

DanStiles.Com

Dan’s art has a rock poster silk screen feel to it, and while that is echoed in the label for 75 Minute, the label has a very industrial, textured styling to it that’s different from some of his other works. It will be interesting to see what Dan comes up for the other beers in next year’s Off-Centered series. What are those beers? Well, we’ll just have to wait for the release calendar to find out.

New Label Art – Fordham & Dominion’s Zombee Honey Ale and Release Calendar

New things are continuing to come from the newly restructured Fordham and Dominion brewery. A lot of the beers that used to be on the Fordham side of the catalog have recently gotten new package and label make overs that should be hitting the shelves soon, and now we get a look at the can label for a new seasonal offering from the brewery (breweries?, brewery? this new integration thing is going to take time for me to get used to).

Zombee Honey Ale is described as a brown ale with honey from the Pennsylvania Dutch region and brewed with roasted malts. The beer will be a seasonal offering being released from May to August in bottles, cans and kegs.

For those who have not seen Fordham&Dominion’s 2019 release calendar, I’ve included it below.

New Label Art – Dogfish Head’s Punkin Ale

Dogfish Head Brewery continues its association with Vienna, Austria’s Michael Hacker for the next addition to this year’s Off Centered Art Series, the brewery’s fall favorite Punkin Ale.

Michael has been cranking out some great labels for the Delaware brewery having contributed to previous Art Series beers Perfect Disguise and 75 Minute IPA and as always, the Punkin Ale label captures his unique style.

Sadly, I believe this will be the last label for the brewery from Michael as I believe they’ll be announcing a new artist sometime in the fall who will take over the honor in 2020. I’m looking forward to seeing who Dogfish Head decides to work with next, but there’s plenty of beer drinking time between now and then.

Below is Michael’s new label plus below that, the excellent label by 2018’s Off Centered Artist, Marq Spusta, simply because I love it.

New Label Art – Fordham and Dominion Gypsy and Copperhead

When I saw these new labels from FoDo, my initial reaction was, “it’s kind of soon for a rebranding isn’t it?” But as I looked over the new artwork, I began to believe that there was possibly more here than initially meets the eye.

The repeating pattern of these labels really strike me as beer can labels and at 7 x 5.25 in dimension, puts them at around the right size for can art. Still, they could be bottle labels, I guess we’ll see, but being able to soon pick up some FoDo beers in cans would be a nice thing.

And yes, FoDo beers, because for years Fordham and Dominion have kept the two brands independent of each other when it comes to their respective beers, each brewery having its own distinct style. But, notice that on these labels both brands are predominantly displayed together, not just in one place, but in two, with one of them echoing the branding that the breweries use on their merchandise and marketing.

Keep an eye out!

New Label Art – Dogfish Head’s Super Eight Super Gose

Dogfish Head is gearing up to release another new beer, Super Eight which is listed by the brewery as a super-fruit gose style beer. Ok.

The 5.3%ABV beer boasts an impressive list of ingredients including Hawaiian Red sea salt, prickly pear, mango, boysenberry, blackberry, raspberry, elderberry, and kiwi juices, and toasted quinoa. I’m not going to lie, it sounds like someone went wild at a Jamba Juice. Still, DFH has a habit of making this kind of thing work, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out to be a hit.

But in doing a little reading on the web, the ingredient list wasn’t the most interesting thing I found out about this beer. Buried in a Brewbound article about DFH’s overall market plans for the future I found the following paragraph:

To help bring the brand to life, Dogfish is partnering with Kodak to produce a documentary film chronicling an East Coast boat journey (from Key West to Maine) that Calagione and his son will take next year. And the beer itself – which is acidic and has a high vitamin C count — is capable of developing Super 8 film, which Calagione said will give the company an opportunity to market the brand with an “off-centered approach to storytelling.”

Chris Furnari , Brewbound

Using beer to develop film? That struck me as odd but as it turns out it is not unheard of as i was able to dig up a couple of examples on the web. Here is an article from someone who tried several different homemade developers, one of which was beer, that he states he got good results with, and here is a Youtube video from 2013 of a guy from Australia using beer. The things you learn.

New Label Art – Dogfish Head’s Eastern Seaboard.

As I wrote back in the beginning of the month, Dogfish head is beginning to release a new series of beers captioned “Wooden…It Be Nice”, a salute to wood-aged, wild ales. Below is the label art for the third beer in the series Eastern Seaboard, an ale aged in both red and white wine barrels and infused with blackberries and beach plums.

Eastern Seaboard gets its wild side from inoculations of both Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus, and will clock in at 8.2% alcohol.

As with all beers in the “Wooden…it be Nice” series, Eastern Seaboard will only be available at the Milford brewery for $10 a 375mL bottle, and only 2000 bottles will be made available. Look for Eastern Seaboard sometime around mid-December.

New Label Art – Dogfish Head’s Dragons & YumYums

Dogfish Head must have their artists working overtime. Here’s another label from the brewery, although this time it’s a revision of the already existing Dragons & YumYums.

For those who haven’t caught this one on the shelf yet, here’s what the brewery initially had to say about this Flaming Lips inspired beer:

An explosion of fruit in every sip, Dragons & YumYums is an intensely tropical – yet subtlety bitter – pale ale brewed with a combination of dragon fruit, yumberry, passionfruit, pear juice and black carrot juice. Clocking in at 6.5% ABV and 25 IBU, Dragons & YumYums is a first-of-its-kind beer and vinyl collaboration with American rock icons, The Flaming Lips.

The new label keeps the vibe of the original by Marq Spusta with 2019 Off Centered Art Series artist Michael Hacker giving the label a more candy wrapper feel to it with its more whimsical themes and cartoon like characterizations. It almost wouldn’t surprise me if it had “Taste the Rainbow®” typed at the bottom.

The new Dragons and Yumyums label (top) and the original one (below):

New Label Art – Dogfish Head’s Wet Hop American Summer

Wow, Dogfish Head has been busy lately. Back around September, the brewery announced a new series of beers coming out as special Milton brewery only releases.

The new series “Wooden…It Be Nice” is a salute to wood aged, wild ales, something that not only was of interest to the brewery, but that they also had some experience with:

 “About fifteen years ago, we first started experimenting with sours, beginning with Festina Lente – a peach wild ale that won us a bronze medal at the World Beer Cup the first year it was produced – then went on to produce SeaQuench Ale which is currently the top selling sour in America,” says Dogfish founder & CEO Sam Calagione. “Now, we’re amplifying our wild beer program with ‘Wooden … it be nice!,’ as it’s another step forward in our journey and evolution of goodness incorporating everything from herbs and spices, to local fruits, and of course, bringing it all together in wood.” (From Dogfish Head’s blog)

The program started releasing back in September with KnottyBits, a wild ale (8.2%ABV) aged for a year with Brettanomyces and then racked onto several hundred pounds of sweet and sour cherries and locally sourced rhubarb from Fifer Orchards.

Now it’s time for the next in the series as November brings Wet Hop American Summer, a farmhouse ale (7.75%ABV) aged in Chardonnay barrels with Brettanomyces before being introduced to wet (freshly harvested) whole leaf Citra hops.

Look for the third release Eastern Seaboard, a wild ale (8%ABV) some time in December. The beer sat on blackberries and beach plums after ageing over a year in wine barrels.