the craft of beer packaging (jan 2012)

:Jeti Grand-Format InkJet proudly manufactured in Canadawww.agfa.ca

The Next GenerationSpeedmaster CX102

www.shop.heidelberg.com

1 800 363 4800

.com

MaximizeMaximize Your

PrintingPrinting ProfitsProfits

Maximize Your

Printing Profits

S U P E R T R A D E P R I N T E RS U P E R T R A D E P R I N T E R

PM40010868 R10907 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to 610 Alden Rd., Suite 100, Markham ON L3R 9Z1

18 • PRINTACTION • JANUARY 2012

Top: Sean Zaffino, Graphic Designer/Photographer; Elton Clemente, Creative Director; Jamie Humphries, Marketing Director; Chris Johnston, Director ofPurchasing & Information; Nicole George, Graphic Designer; and Sybil Taylor,Communications Director at Steam Whistle Brewing.

BEER PACKAGINGD

uring my trips to stock up on seasonal cheer at

the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO),

I noticed how fast the packaging and products

are changing on its shelves. My ensuing quest for more

information turned up statistics from the LCBO showing

that craft beers are Ontario’s fastest growing alcohol

market segment. So I spoke to four of North America’s

thriving microbreweries – Steam Whistle Brewing of

Toronto, Muskoka Brewery of Bracebridge, Trafalgar Ales

& Meads of Oakville (all in Ontario), and Flying Dog

Brewery of Maryland – to find out what’s new about the

way they produce and package their specialty beers.

The Craft of

By Victoria Gaitskell

Photo by Clive Chan

Steam Whistle’s Packaging Powers

Chris Johnston, Director of Purchasing & InformationSoon after graduating from the University of Toronto,with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a

specialty in Industrial Relations,Chris Johnston began working forUpper Canada Brewing Company in 1990. He then joined VancouverIsland Brewing in 1996, where hestayed until taking on the pivotal purchasing position with SteamWhistle in 2001. After numerous

responsibilities with small-sized craft breweries for the past 22 years, Johnson is now one of North America’s foremost logistics experts in this sector.

What Johnson sees as his primary role: “I am the facilitator between creative and manufacturing,working both with the industrial designers of the packaging companies, and the engineers and equipment manufacturers to bring to life brand ideas.”

Why he loves the beer industry: “I’m in a fury whenI’m not in a brewery.”

Elton Clemente, Creative DirectorAs one of the two key figures whobring Steam Whistle’s innovativepackaging to life, Elton Clementelanded at the Toronto brewery in2005, just after a decision wasmade to bring creative in-house. He had graduated a few monthsearlier from Seneca College at YorkUniversity and began to establish the company’s creative department. Clemente now manages a department of three, including himself, graphic designer Nicole George and designer/photographer/Web developer Sean Zaffino, while overseeing every aspect of Steam Whistle’s award-winning branding efforts.

What Clemente sees as his primary role: “The title Creative Director is very accurate here in that our whole company does so much brainstorming and my responsibility is to carry it out – to make everyone’s ideas come to fruition.”

Why he loves the beer industry: “There’s nothinglike it for the environment and scope of work. It’s ahighly competitive industry that demands constant innovation. It’s very organic with moving parts. The big question is always, ‘What’s Next?’”

At the Steam Whistle Brewing plant, situated in the historic Roundhouse railroad yard in downtown Toronto, beer is not only brewed on-site, but packaged in multiple formats.

JANUARY 2012 • PRINTACTION • 19

Steam Whistle Brewing – Canada’s Premium PilsnerThe three friends who founded Steam WhistleBrewing, Greg Taylor, Cam Heaps, and GregCromwell, were colleagues at Upper Canada BrewingCompany, a microbrewery that produced premiumbeer in the 1980s and 1990s until mainstream brewerSleemans Breweries Ltd. bought the company in1998 and shut it down. Their entrepreneurial dreamcame true in 2000, when they produced their firstbatch of a new world-class pilsner, Steam Whistle –the company’s only product, now available in justfive of Canada’s 10 provinces (Ontario, Manitoba,Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.)

“Steam Whistle Brewing is the only brewery in thenation, maybe even the world, that makes only onebeer. Our Pilsner is made using all-natural, GMO[genetically modified organism]-free ingredients,”says Sybil Taylor, Steam Whistle’s CommunicationsDirector (and founder Greg Taylor’s wife.) “Mostcraft breweries tend to brew ales they can make inseven days, but Steam Whistle takes a full 28 days tomature. We hire European-trained master brewers[a professional designation that traditionally hasonly been available in Europe] and put incredibleemphasis on quality, including three quality-assur-ance technicians in a lab that’s probably second tonone in the craft brewing industry, who test ourproduct daily. This emphasis is reflected in our slogan, ‘Do One Thing Really, Really Well’.”

Constant packaging innovationTaylor explains: “Since we only offer one beer, packaging becomes very important. The way we attract attention on a shelf or from season to seasonis with new brand packs and different-sized can offerings. I relate us to Coca-Cola, who have beenmaking the same high-quality, world-renownedproduct since the beginning but are constant inno-vators in packaging.”

Steam Whistle’s standard 12-pack cardboard box,a retro retooling of a 1957 suitcase design, ranked22nd out of CBC Canada’s 2007 “50 Best CanadianInventions”. Although certainly more appealing andsturdier than flimsier cartons, the box also requirescostly labour-intensive hand assembly to produce. In2009 the brewery won two PAC Leadership Awards:Gold in the Paperboard Category for its four-500-ml-can mini-suitcase pack and Silver in the DecoratedCorrugated Fiberboard category for its Wall-mountedBottle Opener packaging.

Steam Whistle’s distinctive custom-made greenglass bottle, based on vintage beer bottles from the1940s and ’50s, with a baked-on-enamel label andpry-off top, comprises 30 percent more glass thanother beer bottles and lasts for 35 uses (while the average beer bottle gets used only 12 to 15 times).

Taylor enthuses: “Our bottle is really substantial, soit feels great in your hands, plus we don’t have toworry about the label getting scuffed or dog-eared.It always looks pristine.”

Another of Steam Whistle’s pioneering designs isa 24-pack carton with a zip tab. The carton allowsfor safe, practical shipping, while the zip tab createsan effective merchandising display on arrival. Taylorsays this dual-purpose packaging is so convenientthat other breweries are now copying it, likely withencouragement from the delighted LCBO.

David Cacciottolo, Acting Category Manager, Beer& Cider, LCBO (Toronto) confirms that, instead of the brown 341-ml twist-off Industry StandardBottle, more craft breweries are using unique proprietary bottles like Steam Whistle’s with silk-screen-printed labels instead of paper ones: “Froma marketing perspective, it helps differentiate yourbeer from everyone else’s out there. It also has a cer-tain badge appeal. When you’re holding it in a barwhere everyone else is holding standard brown bottles, there’s prestige to that.”

Cacciottolo says another innovation craft brewersuse is an open carrier. The big brands use a sealedpack instead, because both Canada and Ontario require tamper-evident packaging that makes tampering readily noticeable by the consumer. Twist-off bottles are not tamper-evident, so generally theopen carrier requires pry-off caps and is reserved forpremium beers.

Taylor explains that a steam whistle, once commonon factories, steam locomotives, and steamships, sym-bolizes a time for personal reward. It blew at the end ofthe day to signal industrial workers that it was time forfun and relaxation. “Our customers tend to be peoplewho are well educated, well travelled, and experimentalabout trying different things, including differentcuisines. They’re opinion leaders, who like to rewardthemselves. They might not be wealthy – there’s nosnob appeal to our brand, they might even be starvingartists, but they are willing to invest in certain things:good coffee, good ice cream, good literature.”

Steam Whistle has a 30-year lease on its historicpremises, “The Roundhouse”, a restored NationalHeritage site that once served as a repair facility forCanadian Pacific Rail steam locomotives. Situatedright beside Toronto’s famous CN Tower, the build-ing not only accommodates the brewery’s full production line and 136 employees, but it has alsobecome a popular site for brewery tours, weddings,corporate parties, charity fundraisers, and other special events. TripAdvisor.com, the world’s largesttraveller review Website, recommends Steam WhistleBrewing as number one of 217 Toronto tourist attractions.

“Our building used to be part of the railway systemthat built Canada, and we are intensely proud of being

Craft brewers emphasize packaging far more when distributing to LCBO location, where customers can see and touch the products before they are sold. Product soldthrough the Beer Store is often only represented by a small label on the sales board.


Canadian,” emphasizes Taylor. “All of Canada’s majormainstream breweries are owned by foreign interests.”Labatt Brewing Company Ltd. is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, a Belgian-Brazilian company; MolsonCoors Canada is owned by Molson Coors Internationalbased in the United States; and Sleeman Breweries Ltd.is owned by Sapporo Breweries Limited of Japan. Sothere’s a Canadian flag on all our bottles to remindpeople that we’re independently brewed in Canada.”

Craft beer’s new customerCacciottolo says beer accounts for $640 million or 21percent of the LCBO’s annual sales. Of that amount,craft beers only represent $33 million (about five percent), but they are growing in popularity by 30 percent annually. He adds that consumers of craftbeer have become younger and are typically malesaged 25 to 45.

“People are graduating into more premium alco-holic products at a younger age because they wantmore intense flavour. Generally, it’s a culinary trend.People’s palettes are more sophisticated. They aremore interested in exploring diversity of flavour andpairing alcohol with food, so they need products thatdeliver more taste.”

Cacciottolo says another growing trend amongcraft brewers is to provide more product details on thepackage, including all the ingredients; for example,not just ‘hops’ but the different varieties of hops theyuse. “Consumers who are more knowledgeable are beginning to look for a lot more information, includ-ing when the product was brewed,” says Cacciottolo.Usually the fresher the craft beer, the better.

Single-serve and seasonal brews at Muskoka Mike Laba, Director of Marketing at Muskoka Breweryin Bracebridge, Ontario, says his company has beenreenergized in the last three years by a new investor, anew management team, and Laba’s own efforts to re-brand the company for a younger demographic of cus-tomers. Their recent marketing initiatives haveincluded a new ad agency and a new illustrator whoproduces images of traditional Muskoka landscapes ina contemporary style for their packaging and Website.

Laba says texting, e-mail, Twitter, and especiallyFacebook are positioned as their best vehicles for two-way dialogue with new customers (often amounting toconversations about where and when a certain productis available), as well as announcements of the brewery’spopular product launches and events. No fewer thanfive staff in Laba’s department are assigned to engagecustomers via social media. Additionally, Laba says allbrewery staff are encouraged to make and post videosonline. Laba himself researches and downloads tracksof the hottest music to play for the summer cottagersand year-round locals who frequent the brewery as ahangout.

Single-serve cansLaba reports his company’s packaging emphasis hasswitched to trail sizes: “At the end of 2011, the single-serve can represented 40 percent of overall beer sales atthe LCBO. For the first time ever, people are starting totalk about beer. It used to be they pounded back a caseof 24 on a Saturday night, but now they bring home 10different single-serve cans to savour and discuss, or takethem to friends and family to get their reaction.”

Cacciottolo confirms that while packs or flats arein decline, cans are growing, and especially single-serve sizes are increasing in popularity at a rate of8.3 percent annually. While the standard-sized beercan is 350 ml, most craft beers come in 473-ml or500-ml tall cans sold as singles to allow consumersto try new brands without committing to a wholesix-pack.

“Some craft beers are only sold in cans. For thebrewery the per-unit costs are a bit less than for bot-tles and they’re cheaper to ship. Also, once exposedto light, beer takes on negative taste characteristics.It goes skunky. Cans totally protect beer from lightso are better for the beer,” says Cacciottolo. “Cans alsohave benefits for the consumer, because they arelightweight, virtually unbreakable, they chill faster,are easier to transport, and easier to store becausethey take up less room than bottles.”

But while he advocates cans for packaging, Cac-ciottolo insists beer should be drunk from a glass:“Cans also do not impart a taste, because the insideis lined with a thin layer of plastic, so the beer makesno contact with any metal surface. If consumers de-tect a tinny taste, it only comes from putting theirmouth on the outside of the can.

“But they should actually pour beer into a glass,because it releases carbonation, so the beer is less fill-ing. A glass also allows you to smell the beer and in-crease the flavour of your drink, since most of yourability to taste is through the olfactory sense. Using aglass also lets you enjoy the colour of your beer, andcreates foam that protects the beer from oxidationand losing a lot of aroma.”


Muskoka Brewery’sseasonal brewsAnother of Laba’s new ini-tiatives is a program ofseasonal beers that areonly available for limitedperiods of three to fivemonths each. The brew-ery packages its seasonalbrews in 750-ml cham-pagne bottles with a re-sealable swing top. “I lovethe champagne bottlepackaging,” he affirms,“because it’s festive, itbreaks down the tradi-tional perception of beer, andthe bottle is identifiable as our seasonalbottle. You return to the LCBO when theseason changes, and suddenlythere’s a different one on display.”

The seasonals tend to havehigher alcohol contents and un-usual ingredients. (In fact, Labasays his younger clientele are en-couraging the brewery to get cra-zier with its ingredients forseasonal beers.) For example,Winter Beard Double ChocolateCranberry Stout at $10.95 a bottlecontains 70 percent dark Belgianchocolate, local cranberries fromBala, and eight percent alcohol.

In 2010, Muskoka Brewerylaunched the product with10,000 bottles. In 2011, they pro-duced 90,000 bottles that sold outby the end of December. Thisyear, they’ll distribute 120,000bottles among more outlets.

Although it’s usually best to drink craft beers fresh,Laba discovered that Winter Beard ages well: “In De-cember 2011, we cracked open some of the reserve bot-tles from 2010, and the matured chocolate came out likevelvet. It was awesome. This year out of the 90,000 bot-tles we produced, we’ve laid down 5,000 bottles to agefor a year. I don’t know what we’ll do with them, per-haps sell them for $19.95 a bottle in the LCBO’s Vintagessection. It’s groundbreaking for the beer industry.”

Because seasonal beers are scheduled for a particularseason, but must also first pass a long bureaucratic ap-proval process by the LCBO, they often end up gettingrushed to market, because their ingredients and otherdetails, and therefore their labels, may not be finalizeduntil as late as the week before release. For example,because LCBO insisted that their Winter Beard labelnot appeal to children, it had to be redesigned to showa figure who looks more like a lumberjack than SantaClaus. These sorts of last-minute manoeuvres requirea strong partnership and nimble responses from MetroLabel, Muskoka Brewery’s Toronto label supplier.

Although previously Muskoka Brewery sold itsproducts in Manitoba and Alberta, as well as Ontario,Laba reports they have decided to limit 2012 sales be-cause they are having difficulty keeping up with grow-ing consumer demand. In 2011, their sales increasedby 72 percent and their staff has grown from nine peo-ple in 2009 to 50 in 2011.

Strategic decisions at Trafalgar Ales & Meads Mike Arnold owns Trafalgar Ales & Meads in Oakville,Ontario, a company whose core products are mainlylight and dark beers modelled on traditional English

brews. Trafalgar also runs a second, small 1860s-replicabrewery at Toronto’s Black Creek Pioneer Village.

Arnold, who holds an undergraduate degree inchemical engineering, and a masters degree in nuclearengineering, used his severance package from a 20-yearcareer in the nuclear industry to establish his brewery.He also teaches at Niagara College’s new Brewmasterand Brewery Operations Management program. His19 years of operation have seen Trafalgar Ales outgrowits third location, but although they are shipping 60percent more product than last year, Arnold has de-cided not to expand his brewing operation any further.Instead, owing to excess capacity in the craft-beer in-dustry, he contracts out the overflow to two craft brew-eries in other cities.

Arnold confirms his company has followed a similarroute to Muskoka Brewery’s by creating seasonal beersand packaging their products in $4-to-$5 single-servebottles and $12-$13 six-packs. He explains howLCBO’s approval process for seasonal beers works:

“LCBO plans a year ahead. By January 15, they’llwant to receive proposals for winter beers for 2013. Sowe will develop names and styles and submit them forconsideration. After about a month, based on our rep-utation and the way we describe the new offerings,LCBO may ask for samples – even though the productdoesn’t exist yet – and we’ll start developing a first setof samples via a pilot system. Then we’ll scale up to abigger production system if LCBO decides to distributethe product in bulk.”

The challenges of seasonal labelsCompetition among seasonalbeers compels Arnold to puta lot of emphasis on labels,because “a good label will getyou the first trial of the beer.”In a typical year he willstretch designer LindseyKey’s artistic talents to createat least 10 or 12 different la-bels – even though, if LCBOrequests samples of five newpackaged products, theymight end up deciding to re-tail only one or two. “Thatmeans a lot of the lovely la-

bels we’ve designed don’t goanywhere,” Arnold laughs.

Recently Key designed a labelfor a Hallowe’en-themed beercalled Pickled Corpse, showing askeleton holding a beer bottle. To avoid anticipated consumercomplaints, LCBO’s Social Re-sponsibility Committee ruledthat the product had to be renamed Malted Corpse and thebeer bottle replaced by hops inthe skeleton’s hand.

“There are no real rules forcoming up with all these unusualbeers and labels,” says Key. “We allcome up with different ideas be-cause we all travel a lot and seewhat the latest innovations are.There are hundreds of differentbeer styles out there, so we mightcombine different flavours we

like or several characteristics we find attractive.”In a typical instance, if the LCBO orders a limited

quantity of 1,000 cases, Trafalgar will need to printonly 12,000 labels. Arnold’s Mississauga supplier, Cen-veo MM&T, handles such problematically short runsof up to 35,000 pieces by ganging them together withother projects on toner-based equipment.

LCBO or The Beer Store?Arnold explains: “We can’t show off our labels in TheBeer Store. Customers used to be able to walk aroundtheir cold room, but now The Beer Store restricts thepublic from seeing the beer they sell. Customers haveto know exactly what they want and only get to see alittle wall sticker representing each variety that gets lostamong the other 349 brands.

“But at the LCBO people go to shop for beer. Theydon’t know what they’re going to buy and are attractedby the various labels and packages on the shelves.”

Additionally, Arnold reports that The Beer Storecharges breweries $25,000 to sell a single SKU – say, fora single-serve bottle. Selling an additional six-pack ofthe same product would require another $25,000. Fora bigger brewery these fees may be inconsequential –and even a good deal if they plan to distribute a prod-uct across all 400+ Beer Store outlets; but for micro-breweries the fees are a significant entry barrier,especially since craft brewers would be hard pressed toproduce enough volume to sell their products in somany outlets.

Muskoka Brewery’s Laba says his company’s founderand president, Gary McMullen, is heavily involved inthe Ontario Craft Brewers Association because of suchdifficulties microbreweries face against mainstream

Flying Dog’s Raging Bitch beer label caused it to bebanned by the Michigan Liquor Control Commission in 2009.

Continued on page 35

competition: “On paper the association’s30 members are all competitors, but inpractice we’re all friends and allies. Col-lectively, we represent no more than fivepercent of the market share, so if we tryto steal business away from each other,we’re not going to get that far. But com-bined, if we educate consumers about themerits of buying craft beer, we can tacklethe big, mainstream breweries.”

Laba continues: “The Beer Store –Canada’s number-one, incredibly prof-itable sales channel for breweries – is col-lectively owned by the three largest

breweries, Labatt, Molson, and Sleeman. Inother words, the biggest channel to sell beeris owned by our biggest competitors. It’sdefinitely a David-versus-Goliath situation:30 craft brewers going after the 95 percentof people drinking mainstream beer.”

Flying Dog: Beer meets philosophyFlying Dog Brewery in Frederick, Mary-land, is one of multiple enterprisesfounded by George Stranahan, an heir tothe Champion Spark Plug fortune withanti-establishment leanings and a Ph.Din physics. In 1990, Stranahan and a busi-ness partner opened their first beer-mak-ing operation as an Aspen, Coloradobrewpub (a dining establishment selling

beer brewed on the premises). His inspiration for the name Flying Dog

came from a painting of a winged dog hediscovered in a Pakistani hotel bar after aHimalayan mountaineering expedition.The brewery’s Website explains: “FlyingDog became George's life philosophy be-cause, as he personally discovered, ‘it isamazing what you can achieve if nobodytells you that you can’t.’ Flying Dog standsfor not only extraordinary beer, but also forstanding tall, doing great things, and notletting anyone make you eat shit.”

Stranahan’s brewpub expanded first toa Denver brewery, then in 2007 to itspresent facility 1,600 miles away in Fred-

GaitskellContinued from page 21


STRESSPRINTING

[email protected] | www.theprintingklub.ca

LARGEFORMAT PRINTINGALSO AVAILABLE

POSTERS | BANNERSROLLUP BANNER

FREE

L5T 1L6

Presentation Foldersfrom File to Finish

Free

Aqueous

Coating

on 4-Colour

Process

$77500

Tel: 416-231-1475 or Toll Free 1-866-292-1475Fax: 416-740-3054

www.tradepocketfolders.com

14

ALL PRINTINGUP TO 40” - 6 colour + AQ

NEWEnvelopes

Trade Prices

POCKET FOLDERS

Casebindingdoes !

946 Warden Avenue Toronto, Ontario M1L 4C9416 701 0111 / 888 798 8975

www.specialtiesgraphics.com

Specialties Graphic Finishers

sedo Cas!

gnsebindi

rap

CasebindiGSpecialties

gsetialiceps.www

8/11101 0766 14Mio art On,, tonoroT

ue nevn AdearW649

s

gnCasebindiishernFihic

moc.schiparg

59788 98 7889C4L1M

ue

straP

hW

srelloR&s

elaselo

ABDick

Syntac

straP

ABDick

Syntac

srellooR&s

97-792)614(

HEIDELBERG

ten.nwodsserpro699

Morgana

HEIDELBERG

Continued on page 36

BINDERY & FINISHING

PARTS & ROLLERS

TRADE PRINTING

erick, Maryland. Flying Dog’s CreativeDirector, Adam McGinnis, explains thatthe long-distance move occurred, first,because a large percentage of the brew-ery’s business already came from themid-Atlantic region, which offered evenmore growth potential; and second, be-cause a large, modern brewing facility be-came vacant in that target area. Sincerelocating to Maryland, Flying Dog’s saleshave increased 77 percent.

Like the other microbreweries, McGin-nis reports that their recent expansion in-cludes venturing into experimental brewsand limited-edition one-offs: “This yearwe’re doing a 10-part series called Brew-house Rarities where everyone in produc-tion has the option to pitch a beer theythink we could make that would defy con-vention. Then we choose the best sugges-tions and create them.

“For example, traditional Hefeweizen isa very light, citrusy, thirst-quenching, sum-mer beer with a low alcohol content ofaround four or five percent; but we’ve justreleased a stronger version with 7.3 percentalcohol. The other innovations are still topsecret, but we’re rolling them out slowlyeach month.” They will also begin packag-ing their beer in cans for the first time everstarting in April 2012.

Labels as works of art and political activism A major influence on Flying Dog’s labelswas Stranahan’s friend Hunter S. Thomp-

son, the now deceased American journalistplayed by Johnny Depp in the 2011 filmThe Rum Diary, who wrote in so-called“gonzo” style – a subjective, exaggerated,even crazed approach to reporting that inThompson’s case was fueled by liberaldoses of recreational drugs and alcohol. Inturn, Thompson introduced Stranahan toBritish artist/cartoonist Ralph Steadman,who illustrated much of Thompson’s workand who since 1995 has also been thesource of all Flying Dog Brewery’s label art.

Recently, McGinnis spent nine monthsredesigning the brewery’s packaging in away that displays Steadman’s original art-work as faithfully as possible and removesdistractions added in previous years:“When I arrived here two years ago, I feltthe revisions to [Steadman’s] artwork hadcheapened it by adding bright colours tothe background and thickening the lines.They made the packaging look Kool-Aidish – not an appropriate image for apremium product.” Besides eliminatingloud, extraneous colours from FlyingDog’s labels and bottle caps, McGinnis hasswitched the label substrate from a glossystock to one with a matte finish moreclosely resembling the watercolour paperon which Steadman produces his originalpen and brush drawings.

Wording is also a crucial component ofFlying Dog’s label design. On his first com-mission for the brewery, a label for RoadDog Porter, Steadman expanded onStranahan’s excremental theme by append-ing the words “Good Beer, No Shit” to hisartwork. This slogan has stuck despite con-siderable controversy, as the brewery’s

Website recounts: “As soon as [the slogan] hit the shelves,

the Colorado liquor board deemed it pro-fane and removed all Road Dog from themarket. Temporarily replacing it with"Good Beer, No Censorship," we foughtwith the ACLU [American Civil LibertiesUnion] to get the original text reinstatedfor over four years. In 2000, it was decidedthat art should not be censored. From thenon "Good Beer, No Shit" proudly adorns alllabels for our Road Dog Porter.”

In a 2007 interview with the RockyMountain News, Stranahan confirmedthat his risqué beer labels are actually try-ing to spread a specific political message:Challenge authority. Considering that Fly-ing Dog persists in assigning suchprovocative names to its products as In-Heat Wheat Hefeweizen, and that eachAmerican state has its own system for reg-ulating the sale and distribution of alcoholwithin its borders, it is not surprising thatthe brewery has again landed up in court.Erin Biles, Flying Dog’s Public RelationsManager, e-mailed me:

“We're currently suing the MichiganLiquor Control Commission for their ar-bitrary ban of Raging Bitch Belgian-StyleIPA. The ban occured in September 2009and we filed suit in March 2011. In June2011, the Commission reversed its banon the beer in the state, but our lawsuit,to deem their original decision as a vio-lation of our First Amendment rights,rages on.”

Victoria Gaitskell is keen to exchangeideas with readers at [email protected]


GaitskellContinued from page 35

Business Forms Bond, Carbon & Carbonless

Laser Cut SheetsContinuous Forms & Snapsets

Cheques & Security DocumentsBrochures, Promotional Printing

Graphic Design & Prepress

992 Dillingham Road, Pickering, ON

Tel: 905-839-46571-888-257-2570

Fax: 905-839-7598

Ontario’s Business Forms Printerfor over 50 years

[email protected]

Sterling ValueSterling Results

We are proud to be FSC Certified and an ISO 9001:2008 Company

Cert no. SGS-COC-005843

CA09/55188

ISO 9001:2008

PRINTING EQUIPMENT

BUSINESS FORMS

Tel: 416.740.3388Toll-Free: 1.888.388.5538

CANADIANPRINTINGRESOURCESINC.



See our ad on page 32

[email protected]

TRADE PRINTING

the craft of beer packaging (jan 2012)

Food