As I chronicled on my other blog, I was the guest on a local podcast earlier in the week, wherein we talked about beer labels. My friend Brian, who produces the ‘cast, basically asked the question, "Does beer label art make a difference?" You can listen to it (short, just under eight minutes) here.

I think I was mostly intelligible, and mentioned two breweries by name who commission artists for (some of) their labels, Deschutes Brewery and Dogfish Head. At the time, I had in mind Dogfish’s Chateau Jiahu, because I know they commissioned art from Tara McPherson (though I didn’t name either the beer or the artist by name, unfortunately). But I thought it was interesting and oddly apropos to see this Dogfish article get highlighted (by Wörtwurst) this same week: Husband & Wife Team Create Art for Dogfish Labels.

Not only are those labels very cool (they remind me of paintings by the Dutch masters), but the beer they were commissioned for sounds pretty good too.

So yes, I’d have to say that beer label art definitely makes a difference.