Lo Carnevale!
Happy Ash Wednesday and the official start or Mardi Gras and the Easter season known to the masses as Lent. For our way back in history lesson today, we must go back to 2008 our third full year in business. By now, we have established some great core beers, we have sprinkled in some seasonal ones (Ten Commandments and Gift of the Magi) as well as released a few new barrel aged beers. All in all, The Lost Abbey library of beers is building out nicely and we are starting to explore the spaces and places we don’t have beers in our lineup (mostly seasonally).
At this same time there is a tremendous amount of energy in our tasting room for events and specialty release parties. We begin having conversations that many drinkers love to go to Mardi Gras and over indulge in gluttony and lust. It fits our branding “For Sinners and Saints Alike (mostly the sinning part)… What we need to is throw a great party and invite people to cut loose. But a real Mardi Gras style bash (and the ensuing shoe me your tatas) felt too crash.
We feel something more mystic and romantic. What we need is a celebration that is elevated and fits the branding of The Lost Abbey. Enter Carnival (neh spelled Carnevale so we can emphasize the ale portion of the word). A fun side note, the of the word carnival comes from the Latin carnelevarium which means the removal of meat and relates to the Lenten practice of forgoing meat on Fridays during the holiday period.
We devise a plan that each year Carnevale will be released as our “Lenten Seasonal” and we will throw a costume party worthy of Venetian lore each year to celebrate the beer and our customers. There are many reasons things that happen stay in Vegas and I guess there was sort of a nod to this at Carnevale each year. Much like an “Eyes Wide Shut” mentality, festive merriment was had by many. There were many Carnevale Masquerade parties and each of them brought great energy to the brewery every February or March.
Attendees at Carnevale 2009
Carnevale remains in production today. It has always been a stronger abv saison styled beer featuring American Hops and a dosage of Brettanomyces at bottling. The resulting beer is quite light on the palate with some fun attributes. It starts out in a youthful stage as being dry and quite hoppy. As the Brettanomyces quietly evolves in the beer we see a shift as the tartness increases and the hops settle into a more supporting role.
Around months nine to twelve, the beer expresses with more mature acidity and a nuanced softness. It is almost unrecognizable from the way it tasted on release date and it’s just so much more. Over the years, I have really grown to love Carnevale for the way it develops and settles into a gloriously amazing drinking beer.
Carnevale bottle, San Diego Beer News, Brandon Hernandez
It has accomplished some very high praise over the years garnering numerous awards for excellence in brewing. The 2012 batch was especially lauded as it earned a Gold Medal at the World Beer Cup (Held in San Diego that year) as well as a Gold Medal at the San Diego International Beer Festival before besting all other Gold Medal Beers and then going on to earn Best of Show.
So we know the beer is fantastic. What can you tell us about the art? First many of the pieces we have previously explored had what I would say is “definitive art direction.” In so much as I had a strong visual sense of how I wanted the label artwork to look and feel and I was able to communicate that to Sean.
Original art by Sean Dominguez
For Carnevale it was a bit more free form. I believe the only real direction was that we were looking for Italian Masquarade (not Brazillian Mardi Gras) and that we knew that masks would be a big driving image on the label. Sean was left to his devices to explore and develop the look and feel for the finished piece.
I remember the sketches he showed thinking it was going to be a fantastic artwork and one that shifted the literal themes of our previous labels to something a bit more fantastical and lore inducing. Some equal parts De Medici, Venitian Canals and Cobbled streets of yore, Carnevale has always been a tapestry of part theater and part worlds away. I love the way the art celebrates the beer and reveals nothing about the beer at the same time.
Remember if you will that I spoke in the past about writing 95% of The Lost Abbey labels. Welcome to the first label in our history that I didn’t write. I can’t recall all of the circumstances around this one. I could have been very busy with some expansion projects or just beat from working but I do know this label caused quite a bit of writers block for me and we were always on a dead line back then with the printers.
Many thanks to Sage Osterfeld who stepped in and produced the language that still adorns every bottle produced today.
From the Back of the Label- For centuries Venetians lightened the dark of winter with an elaborate upending of social order. In donning a disguise for Carnevale, for one night a pauper could become a prince, a learned man a fool, a proper lady a passionate lover... and no one would be wiser.
This beer is our tribute to that grand celebration of the unexpected. A saison-style blonde ale with American hops and... well, that’s all you really need to know. Now put on your mask, raise your glass, and toast to the magic of a winter’s night mystery.
Lo Carnevale!
