[1/23 Update: Michelob Ginger Wheat will be released mid-March.]

(St. Louis, MO) – This may be the first time I have ever featured a label on here from what many of us would deem a “big brewer” so I imagine that some of you are surprised. Call it an experiment . . .

I actually had a pretty good reason for posting news about the new Michelob Ginger Wheat and it had to do with label art more than anything. Michael Halbert of the Saint Louis Illustrators blog posted the steps he took in creating the label you see above this week. I had actually never seen an artist break down the steps for a beer label before and thought that would be of interest to some people out there. Of course, before I hit the publish button today, I discovered that the post had been taken down.

So I am linking to the cached version. Unfortunately, the images are no longer visible in the post.

Halbert, who does other beer labels including some for Michelob, also did a portion of the label for the Samuel Adams Barrel Room Collection Series that I featured a while back. Yes, a portion. Adam&Co., a Boston-based studio in charge of the labels, hired Halbert to do just the barrel image and an image of a few hop cones. Halbert posts about it here. The full bottles can be seen on the Adam&Co. site. Finally, Halbert has a video of how he does the artwork for the beer up on YouTube.

I never gave much thought to just how much cost and effort goes into each label for the big companies.

Back to Michelob Ginger Wheat, this beer appears to be the fourth in a line of wheat beers put out by Michelob Brewing. It joins Michelob Bavarian-style Wheat, Michelob Honey Wheat, and the spring seasonal, Michelob Hop Hound Amber Wheat.

The label reads, “A twist on a traditional unfiltered Belgian-style Wheat Ale. Brewed with Citrus peels and spices, accented by spicy ginger notes.” 5.2% ABV.

Halbert believes the beer won’t be available in the marketplace for another three to six months.

[Big Brewery Disclaimer: I am not affiliated in any way with AB-InBev or Michelob Brewing and the use of the Michelob Ginger Wheat label above constitutes fair use as part of the discussion around beer label art. 🙂 ]