017 — Craft Beer Sampling

#designlife

So I am a huge fan of craft beer, more specifically pale ales and I absolutely love trying new ones that I havent seen before. Myself and Lottie recently got turned towards a little local shop near to us, in a neighbouring town that happened to stock a wide variety of canned hoppy brews.

I decided that that evening (back in August) that I was going to have a sampling session and thought it would be a cool thing to share my thoughts on the 5 chosen cans shown above. I’ve rated them out of 5 for flavour, and as I wite this I’m refering to a series of notes I wrote back then so its likely to be pretty light touch on the details.

Being a designer I’m immediately drawn to the can, before anything else and for me the design and craft thats beein employed on the outside is as important as whats on the inside. It sells it in to me beofre I have even looked at the price or type of content and as such will review each can individually alongside its taste.

Salty Kiss — 2.5 out of 5

So the first beer I tried was the bright pink canned Salty Kiss which was described as a:

‘Gooseberry Gose: Lightly sour , fruity and refreshing’

Firstly the name was good, anything marginally sea related is going to get my attention. This alongside the playful handdrawn illustration style on the can gave me optimism that it was going to be delicious. I loved the vibrancy and the playfulness.

Unfortunately I found it really unusual, and it felt fuzzy on my tongue. It wasnt quite what I expected and I know it says ‘sour’ in the description but the overal texture just didn’t appeal to me. I had higher hopes for the rest of the cans. Surely the only way was up from here.

Scaramanga Extra Pale— 4.5 out of 5

So up next was a pale ale from the Gun Brewery described as having:

‘… a vibrant zesty nose and a refreshing citrus finish’

Now this was a delicious beer that scored highly and it probably got an extra half a point from the poor performance of the previous beer. It was refreshing, crisp with a fruity aroma. The flavour was typically what you would expect from a pale ale, but that didnt disappoint. It had a uniqueness but retained a level of familiarity.

The design of the tine is simple and almost like its been slapped with a coupld of stickers as it rolls of the end of the processing run, but it is infact a concious use of the metal can which is bold and unashamedly shiney.

The Bears — 3 out of 5

Beer three scored 3 out of 5. The can felt slightly disjointed, irregular and a little cramped, however the angle and use of the metal and ‘sticker’ effect were interesting. It was something different. It is described as looking like a wheat beer with the flavour of an IPA and refered to as a:

‘Hibernation White I.P.A’

I found that it was a little flat, I hadn’t chilled it enough and it had an irregular aroma. Perhaps thats the wheat beer element coming out? Overall it lacked the punchy flavour i’d have hoped for, but to its merit it was mellow and super smooth.

Cannon Ball — 5 out of 5

BOOM! the winner. This beer was delicious. There was nothing out of the ordinary. Standard Pale ale flavour, which after all I was looking for. It was full bodied, fruity & well flavoured.

As with the Salty Kiss the design of the can appealed to my inner child, and only upon closer inspection do you notice that each character has a different perosnaly between the different cans. The level of attentiaon to detail. The unseen / unnoticed elements are lovely touches.

Fresh Pale Ale — 1 out of 5

A beer from the Wild beer co that i want to describe as:

‘Piss Poor’

Out of all five beers this was my least favourite. So much so that I wasn’t able to finish it. It had a nutty aftertaste that spoilt the effect and just ruined the whole tasting session. Having ‘freshest hops’ on the can along with the name Fresh, I had hoped it was going to be light and super refreshing, almost a palette cleanser but it just didnt live up to any of my expectations.

The can is ok, very collaged, with almost illegible all caps text on the reverse . The vibrancy of the ytellow contrast with black is cool and I love forrest imagery so the stag appealed to me on the shelf. I just wish I’d left it there.

Anyway thats the 5 beers and some really up in the air notes about how I felt. Despite only really enjoying 2 out of the 5, the exploration of trying them was great fun and something I will definitely try again soon.

Stay rad!

Matt Emmins | Twitter | Instagram | Portfolio