The beau has recently become a homebrewer. It all started with a trip to Brooklyn Homebrew with a friend who was buying the gear for herself. After that, it was all he could talk about. So for Christmas I bought him the Brooklyn Brew Shop starter kit. After a failed initial attempt (the yeast didn’t activate properly), we supplemented the kit with some more supplies, researched some recipes, and headed back to Brooklyn Homebrew for grains, malt, yeast, and hops. A few weeks later, El Gato Balboa ESB was born.
Doug and I met on February 10 on an airplane to Iceland many years ago and shared a flight back on February 14 (Valentine’s Day). Each year, we commemorate “Romantic Chanukah” with five small gifts to each other over the five days. This year, we made a rule that at least three of the five gifts must be made or crafted by us. I was so excited to have the opportunity to design labels for Doug’s new venture.
We decided on the company name El Gato as a reference to our love of cats… and because that was Doug’s nickname at the port when he worked in Panama (since he was the guy always found feeding the strays). Since Doug’s a diver, we wanted a maritime theme for the brews and started with the name of the port in Panama, Puerto Balboa, for the Balboa ESB.
I purchased the labels from Onlinelabels.com (I chose the Weatherproof Matte Inkjet) and designed them in Photoshop with the Neato XLP192120 template.
…And by the way, I don’t even like beer and it’s delicious. Good job, baby.