Lagunitas is a brewery that knows the beer experience begins long before you take your first sip. It begins when you're looking at the shelf trying to decide what to buy to take home. You're looking at the dizzying array of bottles on the shelf (If you've got a liquor store like mine, there are literally hundreds of different choices--just in the bomber section!), and you're trying to figure out what feels right for the evening. You make this decision based on a variety of factors, such as what you know about a brewery or particular beer, what you're in the mood for, and what the bottle looks like.
Breweries try to influence this decision, of course, by making the most attractive bottles possible, but Lagunitas stands apart from the others by how it chooses to do this, and it's partly for the bottle that I chose the Lucky 13 for this afternoon. It's not just that it has a pretty girl on the bottle, which is always a draw for me (See this popular post on our sister blog for more information on Beer Babes). Lagunitas also does something else that I love: they pay attention to the writing on the bottle. I have often been very happy with the writing on a Lagunitas bottle. Let's take a moment to look at the writing on this bottle:
From the first day of the first mash of the first recipe in the first brewhouse in the first space to this oasis 13 years on the road; We have worked hard to walk in the footsteps of our hero brewers--The Noble Brewer of the planet's only legal Steam Beer, and Oregon's Rebe Brewer from Newport. Thirteen years down the road, we have found our own voice as brewers but our admiration for the Great Ones has not dimmed one bit. If we walked well down the hero's path ourselves, perhaps we too have been an inspiration for others. Beer is a Bronze Age business and we feel honored to have left our footprints on it's [sic] path into history at the same time leaving our flavors on your buds. Thanks for your trust over the years, and we hope you enjoy this specially brewed Hi-Gravity Auburn offering. Beer Speaks, People Mumble!From the repetition of "first" to the repetition of the company's slogan, this text oozes of the anxiety of influence in brewing. They are conscious that they are standing on the shoulders of giants and are attempting to pay tribute to their immediate inspiration (explicitly referring to Anchor and Rogue) as well as the long tradition of which they are a part.
This is not great writing (note the its/it's confusion for example), but it is a sincere attempt to capture the spirit that went into the beer's making, something they hope will carry over. It is attempting to enhance the act of brewing as communication, which is something they consistently try to do.
For another example, consider the label text on their Little Sumpin' Wild Ale:
"Bring me Sumpin' Wild!" His voice rang out down the double helical hallway. He was summoning the object of his desire, that Phenolic Off-Flavor producing POF gene. He was a handsome, albeit pedestrian, heterozygous diploid strain and he longed for the wild side of things--the lights, the big city, the clove esters, the subtle tropical fruit nuances . . . but he was an ordinary diploid. "Bring me the POF!" he bellowed again down the helix holding out his fresh new bud in hopeful expectation of the imminent protoplast fusion that would allow him to decarboxylate ferulate to 4-vinyl guaiacol and qualify him for pitching and subsequent ATP defilement of the luscious Little Sumpin' wort. Hope springs eternal, but who among us is as luck as all that . . ?All this to explain that this is their typical Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale fermented with Westmalle yeast, but what an explanation!
There are a lot of different approaches to writing beer bottle text, but Lagunitas' is one I admire. Sincerity and devotion to the spirit over all. No one can truly capture the taste or experience of the beer itself--the label should strive to capture something of the spirit of the brewer and the message of the beer.
Now, getting past the label to tasting the beer itself. This is a delicious beer. It pours an attractive pale red color, with little in the way of head, but for its lightness it has a surprising amount of malt flavor. Lagunitas addresses this in their virtual tasting, which is very accurate. And, of course, the hops are strong and delicious. Lagunitas is definitely in the top 5 hop-handling brewers in the country (Odell, Stone, Dogfish Head, and someone else I'm forgetting to round out the others), and they do a masterful job here. Lucky 13 Alt has a complex, bitter, piney finish that doesn't hit like a hammer, but rises like a wave and bears you up with it.I've had the "Veronica" form of Lucky 13, but I don't remember it well. Having had it twice, I can definitely say that the "Betty" form is highly recommended, especially for hop-heads.
Beer piled on beer were all too little: Drink--and be damned!
