If you have been to a liquor store lately (I have!) you may have been amazed at the number of craft beers available.  Ranging from pale ales to exotic flavors, craft beers are small breweries that put most of their time and money into creating a top-notch product, and far less in advertising, which is why some of these unique brands can be somewhat unknown.

One way these breweries try to stand out from the crowd is through their labels.  Many have flamboyant designs, like Shmaltz Brewing, which feature sideshow acts on their Coney Island Island series.  Others are more subtitle, only having the brewery name on the label.  Either way, these small breweries are storming the beer industry.  Their unique, fun, sarcastic, and sometimes politically incorrect label designs can really catch your attention.

The interesting thing about craft beer labels, unlike wine labels, is there is no air of arrogance around these label designs.  It seems more breweries rely on creativity and personality then sophistication and elegance.  In the world of beer drinking, this seems like a good call.  Rob Leonard of New England Brewing Company notes, “For the past year or so, we’ve been putting our personalities into the labels.  We’re having fun with it.  It helps – anything to catch someone’s eyes when they are looking at the shelves.”

New England Brewing’s Gandhi-Bot Double India Pale Ale has a robotic Gandhi.  “You think of Gandhi and he’s cool, so let’s immortalize him in robot form,” said Leonard about the new label design.

The craft brewer niche is growing at a rapid pace, which means the label designs will only get better as the competition becomes more fierce.  It is great to see how much importance is put on the label design, as opposed to other advertising and marketing mediums.  Many of these small brewers believe once you try their product, you will be sold, so if the label can reel you in, they have got you.