homebrewer_99 said:
Ya know? The premise is good, but I have to ask: are the Poles Slavs? The Hungarians are Magyars, they don't call their country Magyaria but that has nothing to do with this conversation so I won't bring it up again...
An IPA reeks Great Britain in me bloody boots all the way to...well, India.
Your Smoky Brewing Co. name seems way out of place for the European theme going on...OK, I'm drunk. But your label takes me to 6 places on the globe. There's no cohesion or continuity of an idea. IMDO - In My Drunken Opinion. Did I just create a new acronym?
Sorry to poo on your idea. I am really not one to do that...can I blame my behavior on the really good homebrew that I'm drinking?
Wow...thanks for the comments. It will be filed under complaints.
If you need a full explanation:
-The label says IPA because it was the most recent beer I brewed. I have not had the ability or opportunity to brew a "true" Pilsner or Eastern European style beer yet. I did do an extract bock recently but that was as close as I have gotten to a lager. The bock went through a lagering process. I am aware that IPA is British in origin, however I am not. I enjoy the beer and it is the most recent one I have made. I suppose I could have waited to post it for comments after I had made a true "Eastern European style" beer.
-Ethnically, linguistically, and historically, Poles are slavs. So are Slovenians, which makes up the other 50% of my heritage. You could also include people from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, parts of Germany, Croatia, Serbia, the Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, etc. I could have put "Brewed in the Slovenian-Polish Tradition" but that really doesn't make any sense. Around my parents and their respective families I always say I'm a "Slav" as opposed to Polish or Slovenian; that makes everyone happy I guess. "Brewed in the """Slavic""" Tradition" is slightly tongue-in-cheek but I do plan on starting to use Rose Hips (recently mentioned in another post) which were used in Poland (and other places as well) as a preservative before hops. Maybe even potatoes in a mini-mash...
-It actually says "Smoley," not "Smoky." Smoley is a Slovenian name, usually found as Smolej in Slovenia but it was changed by immigrants to the U.S who were looking to shed their European peasant stigma.
I hope that makes more cohesion to the idea, although I wasn't expecting to have to justify whether or not I had come up with a good idea. This is the first label I have posted. I originally posted this looking for some feedback on the label itself (color, fonts, size, format, etc.). It seems from every other label on this forum some good feedback was given about these sort of things, that was the kind of comments and complaints I was looking for. I guess I should be more specific about what I am looking for in the future.