Laying down the gold...
/It’s been a big few weeks for everyone at the brewery with our first ever special having just been released. We have just launched “Utopian Stout” which is part of our new Limited Edition “Salamander Series” to selected outlets. This stout is an 8%, full bodied, medium dry Export Stout with a silky smooth mouthfeel and dark chocolate & coffee notes. Our Brewer Laurie has been working on the recipe for this for some time and we are very proud of how it has turned out, and it taking pride of place in being the first of many more specials to come as part of this small batch series.
For this new series we wanted to look at a suitable way of presenting these new bottles which will be released in very limited one-off quantities. Due to limitations, both practically and financially, of doing very small quantity print runs of the labelling, we decided to go for a generically branded main bottle label that will be the same across the multiple specials in the series, but to use a small coloured neck and over-cap label that identifies the individual beer, it’s type, ingredients, and ABV.
I recently had the pleasure of visiting our label printing partners NuPrint, based in Derry/Londonderry, who have done such a great job in already producing our 3 main core beer labels for our IPA, Golden Ale and Porter.
Having been involved with the graphic design process of many items at Lacada since the brewery’s inception, it was very exciting for me personally to actually get to visit their production facility and see these new Salamander Series labels being produced on the presses and coming off the print line as the finished product.
As many print designers will know, you normally send a printing job off from the comfort of your studio seat and screen, and in the majority of cases the next time you see it, it’s nicely packaged and delivered from the printers onto your desk or to the client directly. So it was very interesting seeing the process from start to finish, and watching the machines and highly skilled operators preparing our labels.
You really have to see the new bottles and labels to appreciate how nicely they turned out with lots of lovely gold foil being the core design & print elements being used to give this new series that special look and feel.
By using NuPrint we are also very proud to be supporting another local Northern Ireland based business, and that is something that our Co-Operative takes pride in being able to source and use as many local suppliers and businesses as we possibly can. We currently purchase our bottles and cardboard boxes from Northern Ireland companies, some of our malt comes from this island, and we also use printers from across NI to produce our marketing materials and merchandise supplies.
I would like to personally thank Paul, Conor, and all the production team at NuPrint for facilitating my visit, and you can view some photos below of production and the final bottle.
Make sure to go out and buy yourself some Utopian Stout! It not only looks good with our new labeling, but is an extremely tasty and well accomplished beer in my opinion.
Keep an eye out for many more different brews in the Salamander Series being released over the coming months.
