Dogfish Head Updates Black & Blue Label To Highlight Black Eye

That big ol’ shiner has been right there on the label all along, but don’t feel silly if you’re just now noticing it. To be honest, lots of folks here at the brewery missed it, too!

That’s why the label looks a little different this year.

Back in 2007, Dogfish founder Sam Calagione asked friend David Larned, a celebrated portrait painter from Chester County, Pa., to create the label art for a Belgian golden ale brewed with blackberries and blueberries. Larned, a diehard Dogfish fan whose wife did the Red & White label, painted the gem you see on the Black & Blue bottle, part Colonial portrait, part wink-and-nod to off-centered ales.

This year, we wanted to give Black & Blue a fresh look, so Sam brought Larned’s original oil painting to the brewery so the design team could figure out how to make it even better.

“The black eye was getting lost, and that’s a great part of the character,” says Dogfish designer Paul Thens. “Being a Dogfish fan and lover of Black & Blue, it was really cool to get a look behind the scenes and see that the label art was from a real painting in this beautiful gilded frame.”

While staying true to the original, Paul punched in for a closer look at the black eye. He also added the Dogfish shark and shield, as well as a description of the beer in our signature Doggie font.

“We wanted a quicker communication of what the liquid is all about,” he says. “But that great painting is still the star of the show.”

Well, maybe the real star of the show is inside the bottle. After all, the pureed blackberries and blueberries are dosed into the beer while it’s fermenting, so the yeast is not only eating sugars from the grain, it’s also eating sugars from the berries. That weaves the complex fruitiness throughout this 10% ABV beer, rather than just sitting on top in the aroma.

“That’s Black & Blue,” says Calagione. “Hunt it down, kill it, drag it home and drink it.”

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