The Community Supported Beer (CSB) program is one of the things that makes Boise Brewing truly unique. Each month we create a brand new beer for our community to try out. One of the things that you might not know though is that every month we work with a local artist to create the art featured on the tap handles of these Community Supported Beers. The program allows us to showcase the amazing artists we have here in Boise as well as provide a space for them to sell their art. Our upstairs mezzanine features the work of local artist each month for sale or showcase. Our CSB artists are given “first dibs” to this space and most of them use the opportunity to put their work up for sale during that month. These artists are an incredible part of our Boise Brewing family and we want to introduce you to a few and tell the story behind their work.
Community Supported Beer
Artist Highlight:
Alex Kueneman
CSB Art: Black Cliffs American Stout, Ode to the PIMP, Mr. Freshy’s Fresh Hop Ale, Oktoberfest
Alex is an obvious first choice for our CSB highlight. He has done so much amazing work on some of our most popular beer labels; the first being the Black Cliffs American Stout. One of our very first beers in production, the Black Cliffs has gone on to win medals at both the North American Beer Awards and the Great American Beer Festival. The label itself was actually a collaborative effort between Alex and his sister. We first got in touch with these two through our head brewer, Lance, and his wife. Lance’s wife went to school with Alex’s sister and when we reached out to them about helping us with a label they were quick to jump on board. However, Alex’s sister lives overseas so the two had a very unique challenge staying in communication while working on the piece. However, (and luckily for us) they were able to make it work through many emails & phone calls; The result is an awesome collaboration piece that we are so proud to have attached to our most prestigious beers.
Recently we got to sit down and have a beer with Alex while chatting about his process in creating some of the beer labels. Most of his work begins as sketches until he forms a solid concept. From there it is a matter of adding or removing parts of the image until he gets to a point where he is ready to scan and digitize his image into Illustrator or Photoshop. Then he can finalize the image and add in our logo and.. Presto!… we have a new beer label!
Alex is also the creator of our iconic mascot, Mr. Freshy. Mr. Freshy was originally created to showcase on our fresh hop ale label but since then has made some appearances on other beers, our chalkboards, and other random advertisements. He’s a pretty cool little dude. You can guarantee this isn’t the last time you will see Mr. Freshy or Alex for that matter. We look forward to working with Alex in the future and really appreciate all he has done for Boise Brewing.
Thanks for sharing all your awesome work with us Alex! You are such a talented artist and valued member of the Boise Brewing family! Cheers!
