You can tell a lot about a beer from the label. At their worst, a label does little more than shout tired old buzzwords, like “Crisp! Dry!” and “Light!” At their best, when they’re used like tiny canvases, they’re able to tell the story of a brewery, the people who work there as well as […]
You can tell a lot about a beer from the label.
At their worst, a label does little more than shout tired old buzzwords, like “Crisp! Dry!” and “Light!” At their best, when they’re used like tiny canvases, they’re able to tell the story of a brewery, the people who work there as well as providing some insight into their little part of the world.
With the help of a great designer, a label does so much more than simply describe the liquid inside, they’re one of those rare objects with the ability to combine words and images and put people in touch with history, without having to smack them over the head with a text book.
Take this one for example.
Jedrzej Reinstein has been a home brewer for 50 years. To help celebrate his 88th birthday recently, some of the grand kids and their partners – one them being our logistics guru Andrew – decided to get a label designed for his latest batch as a surprise.
Working with our mates at Millke Creative, they started with a painting of the main square in Krakow, Poland, which Reinstein’s brother completed in the 1940s. Having fled Europe after the Second World War, the young Reinstein family landed in Melbourne soon after. Growing up here, back when there wasn’t much of a beer selection, Reinstein decided early on that he’d rather brew his own and claims to have never set foot inside a bottle shop. The name translates to “grandfather’s beer” and his whole life story is evident here in the finer details.
Going by the photo, it looks like ol’ Jedrzej was pretty chuffed with the end result and Andrew reckons the beer was great too.
