Eight Tasty Beers That Should Kick Their Tasteless Labels

Great brews. S****y packaging.

By The Editors
May 19, 2016 9:00 am

You can’t judge a beer by its cover.

But you might like the cover enough to at least give that beer a chance.

The creative work that goes into a good beer label taps everything from gorgeous design to dad-level puns to obscure pop-culture references. And it’s important work: in the absence of having tasted a beer, it’s the barometer most shoppers go by when they pick out a sixer.

Which is probably why some brewers toe the line of decency, busting out some good old-fashioned sexism to sell a pint. Take Indiana’s 18th Street Brewery, who got in a Twitter spat with a female beer blogger earlier this month over the bawdy artwork featured on their Sex & Candy IPA.

With plenty of laws on the books that prohibit breweries from using labels that are too kid-friendly, promote drunkenness or make health benefit claims, it’s no surprise that brewers turn to cheap shock tactics to turn heads — but that doesn’t make the practice any less out of touch.

Here a few examples of delicious beers that willingly alienate some of the market (read: women) with their tacky, sex-sells labeling.


Image via 18th Street Brewery

18th Street Brewery Sex & Candy
There’s nothing wrong with a delicious beer that borrows the name of one of the ‘90s most prolific one-hit wonders. But things go south when you take the lascivious label (and its aforementioned Twitter fame) into consideration.

3 Floyds Big Tiddy Assassin
Even as one of the Midwest’s most celebrated breweries, 3 Floyds has crossed the line with both the label and the name for this Flemish-style red. If your bottle requires a sleeve to be poured when there are kids afoot, it may be a sign you’ve gone too far.


Image via Craft Shack

Midnight Sun Panty Peeler
Midnight Sun makes one of the best beers coming out of Alaska with this Belgian-style Abbey Tripel. It’s also called “Panty Peeler.”

Deep Ellum Dallas Blonde
It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that Deep Ellum made headlines when outraged beer drinkers first saw the can label artwork for their Dallas Blonde. How to make a bad situation worse: by giving your promo van a paint job that looks like this.

Wild Onion Phat Chance
Wild Onion produces some fantastic beer, including this blonde ale. But their can artwork has ruffled plenty of feathers in the past, with this one sporting a ‘70s truck mudflap-style silhouette of a woman wearing a bikini bottom.


Image via Liquor Mart Whittier

Clown Shoes Tramp Stamp
No one ever accused Clown Shoes marketing team of tact or subtlety. Exhibit A: Tramp Stamp, a standout IPA that makes unfortunate use of society’s most regrettable tattoos.


Image via Beergium

Beer Here Malus Pater
There are plenty of instances where beer makes light of major events to get a laugh, and that’s usually fine. But when the major event in question is the widespread sexual abuse of children by priests in the Catholic Church, it’s probably best to opt for a different direction.

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