Year Round/Seasonal/Limited Beers

Here is what I would like the PBC line up to look like around year 5 (of course earlier if possible):

Year Round/Core Beers - These are the standard Payette beers available any time in 12 oz and 22 oz bottles (cans?) and on draft. Probably 4-6 beers that will probably be more in line with traditional styles, but would not rule out something more experimental if it worked well. As far as names go, I think these will remain basic such as Payette Porter, Payette IPA and Payette Wheat (again of course, you can't pass up a good name if one comes up).

Seasonal Beers - Not just limited to the four seasons, these are beers that will only be available during certain times of the year. Like the core beers, these will come in all forms of distribution when available. I see these being more on the experimental side in ways to fit the time period when released. I see these and the limited beers the place where the names get a little more fun and creative. No idea how many of these there will be, probably start with one or two and it might grow to six.

Limited Beers - I like to call these the "Ales of No Return." These are going to be "big" or "extreme" beers that as the name would suggest, might only be made once. I say might only be once because I do see some of these sort of turning into seasonal beers, but not included in that series. Beers like the Mountain Man Barleywine, it will be made every year, but that doesn't mean the recipe will be exactly the same every year. Other beers might be really good and come back for an encore, others might suck and are never heard of again. I know what the name says, but come on, people returned from the river of no return all the time. Due to the small amount of beer that will be made, these will be sold in 22 oz bombers with some kegs distributed. These beers generally will be ideal for cellaring (cellaring will be discussed in another post). I anticipate an "Ale of No Return" to be released every six months.

All together I see this putting the Payette Brewing portfolio at about 10 different beers during a given year with the repertoire always growing.

Labels: Since I am nothing close to an artist I don't have any examples for labels yet, but I will try my best to describe what I am thinking. I want to use the general diamond design used for the "55 Pale Ale" and "Dubbel Your Luck" for all of the lines. I figure that the rainbow bridge will be used on one of the bottles, so think of that as I go through what I want to do for the year-round beers. What I want to do is keep the picture the same, but change the picture and the edgers of the diamond to fit the season. With the rainbow bridge one, it is pretty easy to imagine a spring, summer, fall and winter shot of the bridge (they wont have to be from the same vantage point, just the landmark will need to be recognizable as the same). As for the edges of the diamond this could be consistent throughout the line, but maybe skis/poles for winter, raft/kayak paddles for summer. Still need to work on the other seasons, but that will come. The beer itself wont change, but the artwork will about every 3 months (maybe never using the same picture twice?). It might be a stretch to do all this at first, but I think is would be something pretty unique in the artwork/design of beer bottles. The other lines will probably follow the same form, but since they are seasonal and limited, the artwork wont change with the seasons. I guess I need to take a look at the whole marketing thing and make some sort of a plan, right now I am just throwing out my most recent thoughts.

As for the three different beer lines mentioned above, I would like to come up with names for each of the lines as not to just call them year-round/seasonals/limited. I already mentioned "Ales of No Return" for the limited, so throw out any ideas for the other two if you have them.