GRAYBEARD

I finally took the next step in home brewing. After using malt extract the last two years, I decided it was time to take the training wheels off. Over the winter I collected all the appropriate equipment and on the first nice weekend of the spring I brewed my first batch.

Check out Urban Outfitter's leprechaun shirt! It looks strangely familiar to me. That's because I created one just like it for Bennigan's in 2008...

The idea originated from a project our team was assigned in 2007. The project was to create a leprechaun character for Bennigan's advertising campaign. We decided the best way to do this was to hire a comic book illustrator to bring our 3 concepts to life, pick our favorite one, then create an advertising campaign around him.

We contacted Steven Sanders, an illustrator based in Kansas City and hired him to illustrate three different leprechauns; one weird, one similar to Bad Santa and one classic leprechaun. Below are the results.

The traditional leprechaun on the right was chosen for the advertising, but we loved the sloppy guy in the middle so much, we put him on the St. Pat's day t-shirt. I couldn't get the belly shirt past the client, but otherwise, the illustration was used as is.

I first tried Weihenstephan Hefe Weiss Bier at the strong recommendation of a pushy fellow customer at the Liquor World in Fayetteville, Arkansas last year. The floating yeast particles in the bottle turned me off at first, especially when the label claims it was made by the oldest brewery in the world, which is nearly 1000 years old.

But after having a coworker try it first and not die, I was ready to try it. It tasted really really good. So this summer, I made a batch of my own. I used the Bavarian Wheat kit from northernbrewer.com and used Weihenstephan yeast.

German wheat beer is known for it's unique banana and clove flavor that stems from a particular German strain of yeast. It's one of the more popular beers in Germany.

My attempt at recreating this style of beer came out perfect. It fermented in the basement at a nice cool 62 degrees. Below are some photos of the process.

Yeasty.

Brew Kit

This is a logo I created using spray paint and handmade stencils. See more below.

Introducing my second home brew creation, a brown ale. It turned out very well, definitely better than my first attempt at home brewing. This ale has a hint of caramel sweetness and a nice undertone of bitterness. The only downfall is that the carbonation is a little too strong. Oops. The alcohol by volume ended up at a solid 4.6%. Details below.

Yeast starter. I created this concoction a couple of days in advance so the yeast was strong and healthy for brewing day. For this particular recipe, I used 1099 Wyeast Whitbread Ale.

Brew kit instructions. I purchased the Nukey Brown Ale extract kit from Northern Brewer. A good beginner's recipe.

Steeping the grain. This is like making a pot of tea, except the tea bag is as big as your head and filled with specialty grains (CaraRed, Chocolate and Dark Crystal). Luckily I found a 4 gallon stainless steel pot at Big Lots for just $17.

Fuggle hops waiting to be boiled.

Grain steeping is done.

After removing the grain bag, I added 6 lbs of gold liquid malt extract, 1 lb of light dry malt extract and the fuggle hops. Then boiled for an hour. This liquid is now called wort.

After the boil, the goal is to get the wort down to room temperature as fast as possible.

After the wort cools down, I poured it into the carboy while straining the hops out. I aerated it by giving it a good shake, then added the yeast. Fermentation now begins.

Fermentation isn't pretty.

Racking the beer. After two weeks of primary fermentation, I moved the beer to a second carboy and left behind all of the sediment that formed from the yeast. This makes for a clearer beer.

Gravity Reading. This instrument, called a "hydrometer", measures the gravity of beer. This let's you know that your fermentation is complete and how much alcohol was created.

Around this time four years ago I designed the official beer cup for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. What's the official beer cup you ask? If you went to the World Cup and ordered a beer, your beer would have been served in this shiny collectible chalice.

One last french onion soup night before winter's end. Recipe after the jump.

Ingredients:

2 large onions, sliced thin salt pepper 2 cans of beef broth 1/2 can or chicken broth 1/2 cup of dry red wine 3 tbsp butter 1 tsp smoke paprika 1 tsp flour 1 tsp thyme 1 tsp parsley 1 bay leaf 1 cup shredded gruyere 2 tbsp grated parmesan 1 tbsp olive oil french baguette - cut into 1" squares

DIrections:

1. In a large pot, combine butter, olive oil, sliced onions and a pinch of salt. Cook on low-med heat for 1 hour.

2. Add flour, paprika, red wine, beef broth, chicken broth, bay leaf, thyme, parsley and simmer 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

3. Sprinkle parmesan and olive oil on french baguette cubes. Toast in the oven.

4. Put soup in broiler-safe bowl, top with toast cubes, then a heaping amount of cheese and put in the broiler until it's golden brown. Sprinkle parsley on top for color.

This is the first piece of a new branding project we've been working on for Essex Industries. The product, Last Chance Rescue Filter, is a filter that snaps onto a firefighter's SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus) in the event of an out-of-air emergency.

For the product relaunch, we created a new logo, brochure (pictured), dvd training materials and had an amazing photoshoot at Bruton Stroube in St. Louis.

Credits: Jessen Wabeke (writer/partner) and Brandon Voges (photographer/retoucher)

In the next few weeks you may notice a new beverage at your local grocery store or pharmacy. It's called Nawgan® and it was formulated by Robb Paul, a brain scientist. Recently featured on a Times Square digital press release, Nawgan has a patent-pending blend of ingredients combined and specially formulated to help support memory and cognitive skills. I helped create the logo and packaging for Nawgan at Propaganda, the design firm I work for. In addition to the final designs, after the jump I've included some of the rejects/legwork that helped guide me to the final piece.

The chosen logo.

Some of the original concepts, you'll notice the other logo options.