NoCoast: Plains Simple Beer
Before NoCoast was NoCoast, they were little more than an idea to start an Iowa based, malt-forward brewery. Head Brewer, Chuck Crabtree brought his dream to Mahaska CEO, Branden Muhl, who promptly called us to help bring shape to their dream.
DELIVERABLES — Naming, Branding, Packaging Design
After discussing strategies with the core team, we decided it would be best to conduct a week-long sprint, where we would generate as many diverse branding concepts as possible, in order to quickly discover a direction worth pursuing.
The core team are a naturally quirky bunch, and they immediately gravitated toward the irreverent and punny NoCoast Beer Co. concept. In a landscape of hipster IPAs that’ll burn your tastebuds off, defying convention was at the heart of their drive, so NoCoast was the natural choice for them.
We worked closely with the brew team to discuss flavor profiles, and develop names and tag-lines for each of the 8 flagship beers. Each one makes a groan worthy dad-joke out of some aspect of hipster life, and sports a custom illustration to bring the joke to life.
Scientist by training, and naturally curious, Chuck wanted a way to work on experimental beer flavors that he could share with the public and collect feedback on before committing to large batches. Together we developed the X-coast line, a standard can, with blank spaces to allow the brewers to write in required information (Brew Type, ABV, Date, etc), which changes from beer to beer. This approach saves them money when it comes to printing cans, and provides them with a flexible framework for distributing their experiments.
