Shebeen Brewing Company

Rich, Shebeen's owner, came to me when the brewery had one beer in cans and sold everything else by the growler. He wanted bottles that read as one family on a store shelf, and the label template we built together kept him coming back for the projects that followed.

Project: Freelance packaging
Scope: Bomber labels, can, tap handles
Client: Shebeen Brewing Company
Era: Early 2010s

Irish Pale Ale can

The brief

A label built to take the next beer

Shebeen was moving from growlers to 22 oz bomber bottles and released new styles often, so Rich needed a label a new beer could drop into without a redesign. The wood planks, the crest and the parchment scroll stay fixed. Each beer changes only its name, its tasting notes and the color of the shield on the right panel.

Label template
Bomber bottles

Two Shebeen bomber bottles side by side showing the crest, scroll and side panels of the 1814 Colonial Brown label — 1814 Colonial Brown, front and side

Close angled view of the Shebeen crest and scroll on a dark green background — The crest up close

The lineup, scroll to see all 16

Bacon Kona Stout label — Bacon Kona Stout

Concord Grape Saison label — Concord Grape Saison

Double Rye Porter label — Double Rye Porter

Glacier Pale Ale label — Glacier Pale Ale

Pumpkin Scotch Ale label — Pumpkin Scotch Ale

The brief also covered a four-pack carrier and new tap handles in the same visual language.

On the shelf

Easy to find in a row of dark bottles

A store shelf is where a beer label earns its keep. The green neck foil and the pale scroll pick Shebeen out from the bottles around it, and two different beers in the same template already look like a brand.

Store shelf with two Shebeen Double Rye Porter bombers between bottles from other breweries — Double Rye Porter on a store shelf

Shebeen bomber bottle in front of its full flat label — Bottle in front of the full label

Irish Pale Ale

Making a young brewery's mark look old

For the Irish Pale Ale can, the goal was to age the logo up. I looked at old stoneware ginger beer bottles and their stamped oval seals, then rebuilt the mark as a single-color crest with EST. 2012 tucked beside the shield. Warm, printed-looking inks on a speckled ground finish the effect.