On Thursday night, I attended Homebrewed by Design. As part
of Design Week Portland, professional graphic designers partnered with 20
homebrewers to create uniquely labeled homebrewed beer. At the event, the 20 labels were unveiled and
the homebrews were served.
In addition to attending, I actually participated as one of
the brewers. This was the first time my beer was served in public, so I was
very excited! Held at One Grand Gallery on E. Burnside, the event drew a full house.
I was blown away by the quality and ingenuity
of the labels! The time, care, and attention put into the labels was obvious. In addition to great design and beautiful artwork, many labels were
die-cut into unique shapes. Here’s a sampling of some of my favorites:
The beer was impressive as well! A wide variety of styles
were served--saisons, stouts, multiple IPA twists, a Thai Iced Gose, among
others. They were all solid. We’ve got some talented homebrewers in this town!
I brewed a White Session IPA. Since I didn’t have good name
for it, I gave my designer free reign to name it. He called it Western Native
and the label sports a picture of a Native American on the label. I’m not quite
sure how the name connects to my beer. I was hoping to meet my designer at the
event to learn more, but we were not able to connect.
I was worried about my beer because it didn’t have much time
to bottle carbonate. After I sampled it for the very first time at the
event, I was very relieved to see it had
developed carbonation.
I had a great time and hope event organizers
Eric Steen and Jason Sturgill will bring Homebrewed by Design back for another
round in 2014! Did you attend Homebrewed by Design? What were your favorite labels?
I thought your beer turned out really well! Favorites (label and brew) included the Mosaic Pale,the Imperial Russian, and the Bibliophile IPA. Great turnout for the event, I hope they do it again next year!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback Cory. Glad you liked it! I wish I had a chance to taste all of them.
ReplyDeleteGreat to have you both participate in this event. What a blast!
ReplyDeleteCory, you made the Thai Gose? Is that right? I loved the Thai flavors! Did you add lemongrass in secondary? What else was in there?
ReplyDeleteThanks Sanjay! In addition to the lemongrass, I added Thai basil, ginger, and Keffir lime leaves in the secondary. Also, I used Sriracha infused salt in the boil.
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