This Week's New Beer Labels - WTF Edition

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The theme for today’s email is WTF, and not just because Metropolitan Brewing announced yesterday that they would close for good on December 17th.

I’ve written a lot about Metro in recent weeks as news of their bankruptcy swirled, and I’m still organizing my thoughts on this announcement and what it means to the Chicagoland brewing scene. It’s a massive loss, of course, and a genuine end of an era.

Of the 240-ish Chicago-area beer brands in business today, only four or five others have been around as long as Metro, and of those, even fewer have had the influence that Metropolitan has had on the city’s brewing scene. The sheer number of social media posts from brewers around Chicago about the announcement are going to be tough to pull together for Friday. But I’m gonna try.

Until then, hoo boy do we have some interesting labels for our Premium Subscribers this week. Lots of odd decisions being made around the Midwest in terms of potential brand infringement, a beer being made in a state that doesn’t make sense, and a canned cocktail that might be emerging in an unlikely format from an unlikely brewery.

Not currently a Premium Subscriber and want to know WTF we’re talking about?

Ok. Here we go.

The New Illinois Beer Label Of The Week:

This is the first I’ve seen from Utica’s new Ginger Road Brewing Company, a brewery that apparently loves both their hair color and the Beatles. It makes sense that their first packaged option would also be a red ale (not the only amber ale label in this email, either!) but I would note that maybe you shouldn’t Google what “red rocket” also refers to.

Now, on to a NWI brewery with some fun new non-450-North labels to look at: