Rye Wit

The idea for this label came to me when a friend of mine (whose last name is Witt) and I brewed a rye beer back in 1998.  When the KGB's first label competition was announced, I knew instantly what I'd do, but this took a lot of work.  I'd never been an artist or a doodler at all, so I went to the book store and bought a few books on cartooning and started sketching as much as I could.  Years later, Brew Stop owner, Ken Rich (rest in peace), told me this was still his favorite label from all of the competitions.  I think Ken liked the puns as much as I do. 

The figure was drawn with pencil and paper, scanned, and imported into Corel Draw 8.  Everything else was created within Draw.

This label won 1st place in the 2000 KGB Label Competition.

Gladiator Double Bock 

It's tradition, nowadays, for the name of a double bock beer to end in ator.  Gladiator Double Bock is true to that tradition.  It's also pretty much tradition, nowadays, that if you can lick your eyebrows, you'll get plenty of babes.

Another milestone for me; this marks the first time I successfully drew two characters together.  Before this label, I'd never gotten the proportions and perspective of the two figures to seem to live in the same universe.  I guess I'm one of those rare people who can't see the genius in a Picasso, so I throw those sketches out.

This label won 1st place in the 2001 KGB Label Competition.

Altar Boy Bitter

Around the time this beer label came to me, there was a lot of news about priests molesting children all over the country.  One or two people came forward with charges of molestation, then everybody seemed to have a filthy ministrial malefactor in their past.  The churches were going crazy trying to handle all the bad press and you couldn't get away from it.

I didn't start out trying to comment on that story.  I was doodling away, when the surprised priest you see in this label just popped out of my pencil onto the paper.  I'm really happy with the drawing of the boy.

This label won 1st place in the 2002 KGB Label Competition.

Ghetto Booty Malt Liquor

I'd had the idea for the name "Ghetto Booty Malt Liquor" in my brain since well before Altar Boy, but I just couldn't come up with an image that I was happy with.  With the 2003 label competition looming, I settled on this one, but I must say, I'd spent well over a year looking at, studying, googling and drawing the female fundament.  To this day, when I have sketcher's block, I'll start by scribbling in those two round globes and go from there.  I may not have been a butt man before, but I definitely am, now.

This label won 2nd place in the 2003 KGB Label Competition.  First place went to some great friends of mine and the loss to them was well deserved.  Their label is fantastic, as you can see.

BBBB X

This year, there was a theme behind the KGB's label contest.  The tenth annual Big Batch Brew Bash (BBBB) was scheduled for the next year and the officers thought we should commemorate the occasion by brewing a beer and giving a bottle to each person who helped with the judging and stewarding and all the rest of the jobs that need doing to put on a successful homebrew competition.  So the theme was the 10th BBBB.  To tell the truth, I was a bit upset about having to follow a theme and wasn't going to enter the competition at all this year, but I couldn't keep myself from fiddling with Corel Draw and this label came from it. 

It's kind of messy, but there are a few things that need conveying.  There's a big Texas Flag (oriented properly for sideways display) as the backdrop, which signifies our roots and home.  The KGB emblem is also prominently displayed and shows who you're dealing with.  It nods its head to St. Arnold for hosting our competitions every year (see the saint himself down in the lower left corner) and the red stripe of the Texas flag becomes an inset flag of the old Soviet Union, this alluding to the running joke of the KGB being a communist-run organization.  Finally, the big X in the back means it's BBBB #10.

As a side note, the KGB crest is the work of KGB comrade David Diehl.  It's truly one of the finest emblems of any homebrew club and I owe him a debt of thanks for allowing me to use it on this label.  Thanks, David!

This label won 1st place in the 2004 KGB Label Competition.

Bad Habit Abbey Ale

I went back to the well of bad puns for this one.  It's a bad habit of mine, I guess.  This was another of Ken Rich's favorites, so I'm more convinced that he was a pun lover.  This nun is wearing a very bad habit, indeed, and she probably has a few bad habits of her own, but I'll leave those to your puritanically inspired imagination.

This label did cause a little bit of an uproar within the KGB.  You see, the KGB politburo decided they liked handing out beer at our annual homebrew competition (see BBBB X above), and that the winning label entry would adorn the giveaway beer each year.  Well, someone (who shall remain nameless) thought the KGB would be making an anti-Catholic statement by putting this label on the beer, so they settled upon a compromise.  A few beers were reserved without labels, and those who requested them, could go home with an unlabeled abbey ale.  Of course, there were very few who felt that way, so when we ran out of bottles with labels, more people went away disappointed in having to take away a bottle without the label.

Personally, except for the drawing (her head's too small and her right boob is in the wrong spot), I really like this label.  It's always fun to poke fun at a major religion and tweak some other sensibilities at the same time. Plus, you get to see a little bit of nipple.

This label is the first one I made with Adobe Illustrator.  What with the Live Trace and Live Paint features, I couldn't resist buying it and I'm still glad I did.  I've used it for lots of the graphics on this web site and for illustrations and advertisements in my homebrew club's newsletter, The KGB Files.

This label won 1st place in the 2005 KGB Label Competition.

Black Widow Imperial Stout

I think this is my weakest label, yet.  I had a vision of a simple, graphic illustration juxtaposing the abdomen marking of a black widow spider with the outline of a corset filled out by a shapely woman.  I literally drew hundreds of attempts at making the idea a reality.  With time running out, I settled on this.  Luckily, I had been playing with Illustrator throughout the year, so I was able to augment the weak drawing with a comparatively (to previous labels) detailed background.

This label won 1st place in the 2006 KGB Label Competition.

Luchador Mexican Lager

The name for this (figmentary) beer came to me as I watched Nacho Libre, and after I failed miserably to create the graphic spider-woman graphic last year, I decided to try again with this theme.  To me, this label actually has impact.  It grabs your attention (well, mine, anyway).  If it wasn't for the blatant profanity, it might actually make it past the state and federal label regulators (yes, there really are such wastes in our government).

This label won 1st place in the 2007 KGB Label Competition (link to come).