This Week's New Beer Labels (And Some Anchor Stuff):
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Thank you for joining me in this brave new world of Wednesday beer label emails!
For those of you who may be unfamiliar, we’ve been keeping our eyes on the labels that receive TTB approval for oh, about a decade now. We’ve seen plenty of cool art come through and more than a few regrettable label decisions be made by breweries over the years, but remember that all of these are publicly available via the TTB’s website if you want to do the searching yourself.
But why bother? That’s what we’re here for.
Remember, though: Just because these labels exist and were approved doesn’t mean that the beer will ever be released. We’ve collectively been fooled before.
I’m going to take this opportunity to stretch out and find a few labels beyond the boundaries of Chicagoland if that’s okay with y’all. Be aware: Free subscribers will get one Illinois label (like usual) but paid members will see all the other cool stuff we’ve found from around the Midwest including:
An Indiana brewery coming at the Shortscake throne. An aggressively awesome Czech dark lager label from Michigan. DOOM SCOOPZ from Wisconsin. And while we haven’t seen any new Bourbon County labels pop up since the OG label cleared in March (what are they waiting for?) we do have a look at this year’s Surly Darkness label.
Before we get to that, however, I’d be remiss in sending this out today without talking about the shuttering of Anchor Brewing for a minute. Anchor might have been the first beer I was ever even aware of — my dad had brought a couple of bottles of Anchor Steam back from a trip when I was literally a toddler and they stayed on the shelves in our basement for decades afterward.
I was never personally a huge fan of Steam itself, but their Porter and Liberty Ale were excellent, the Christmas Ale was of course legendary and I have great memories of drinking their summer beer in a park in SF’s Mission District with a friend until the wee hours somewhere around 2014. I think most American beer drinkers over the age of 35 have had some personal experience with an Anchor beer. Clearly not enough, though.
A legendary brewery that’s been around for over a century is gone as of today. If you love what American beer is today, the spark that got it all started has gone out. I’d advise you to read Beervana’s post from today and All About Beer’s story eulogizing the Christmas Ale from a few weeks ago. You can also check out all the GDB writing about Anchor including a tasting of five years of Christmas Ales from a few years back that was a lot of fun.
RIP Anchor. I hope someone can somehow revive the brand someday but if it’s gone forever, it’ll be missed. Friday’s Socials email will have a bit of info on what reportedly could have been for Anchor.
Okay, back to this week’s labels.
Let’s start with…
The New Illinois Beer Label Of The Week:
After everything that Skeleton Key has been through over the last few years (what with the whole tornado thing and all) it’s really nice to see them getting back into packaged beers as well — these are the first I’ve seen from them in quite a while. Cheers, SK!
And now, a sporty new look for a legendary Chicago craft beer: