It’s back to the brewery at Backyard Road Trips, but today we’re looking at the logos. Strictly the logos. No beer can art, no mouthfeel, no Untappd rating, no backstories, just logos. Just like one of my son’s favorite songs I’m going to give you five; my top five Massachusetts brewery logos.
I’m a big fan of logos in general, whether it’s baseball or beer. In my opinion, all of these five brewery logos stand alone, without needing any beer connotation whatsoever. Actually, except for the hop usage on two of them, none of them even scream “beer” to me. These are the starting five for my Massachusetts craft beer basketball team.
What was especially fun with this article was scouring through the abundance of Massachusetts breweries to inspect their logos. I’ve done many posts about beer, including one on Night Shift, which also made the cut here, but this time it’s all about graphic design and what the logos represent to me. So let’s Take Five and then begin.
The Elusive Icon-
Treehouse Brewing Company and its now-classic logo is the first of the Top Five Massachusetts brewery logos. I liken the swaying tree image to the Polo player or the Lacoste alligator; the image stands alone, words are not needed to understand what company it represents. The logo itself is sublime, the tree’s tangled branches and the lopsided treehouse are perfect descriptors for Treehouse Brewing Company and it’s tucked-away location in Central Mass.
The logo is full of mystery, and the swaying tree image doesn’t even look like it has anything to do with beer. To me, it is representative of the journey to find their elusive beer as they do not distribute. Venturing to their beautiful wood-accented hideaway atop a hill in Charlton is a journey, similar to trying to climb the wind-blown tree in the logo.
If you haven’t been to their beautiful brewery, it’s a must. Of course, the beer is absolutely world-class, but their facility is welcoming with a large outdoor space. It truly feels like an overgrown treehouse. The logo is just the tip of the beer hop for Treehouse though, as every aspect of the company somehow evokes both classic New England and craft beer perfection.
The Owl Takes Flight-
Night Shift Brewing’s owl logo, an owl with a hop drawn into it, is quite iconic. Night Shift’s logo is clearly marked on their packaging and large scale versions adorn the walls at their breweries. It’s so recognizable that when my four-year-old son sees the logo, he proclaims, “Night Shift!” (Since his visit to Night Shift Lovejoy Wharf, he’s been asking weekly to go back, I swear it’s the pizza).
The owl is cute and appealing, but also ingenious. For Night Shift Distribution’s logo, it’s the owl with its wings spread, about to fly away to distribute the beer. Night Shift can be found in your local package store, has two brewery facilities, two outdoor beer gardens and a planned expansion into Philadelphia. The logo is ingenious since it’s everywhere they are. In your grocer’s cooler, it’s easy to spot Night Shift by the oversized owl on every can. At Lovejoy, the owl is everywhere! Spot it around town on the Night Shift trucks. It’s truly an icon. This owl’s reach is such that in corresponding with Alex, the Community Management Coordinator at Night Shift, he even stated that the logo was personally the reason why he applied to work there!
Classic New England-
In craft beer circles, Wachusett Brewing Company is an elder statesman of the genre, as it was founded in 1994. Beers such as the Green Monsta IPA or the Wachusett Blueberry have always been prized especially when the beer landscape was comprised of mainly watery, domestics. In the last few years, Wachusett has rebranded itself with a delicious line of Wally IPAs, but also has substituted its bottle cap logo with a classic New England scene. They’ve used a color version of the barn and mountain scene previously, but the stenciled barn in black and white simply evokes the essence of the region.
The logo is so homey that I’d like to step into the drawing, sit on one of those Adirondack chairs and crack open a beer on a gorgeous autumn day. (In my mind, I’m picturing the smell of burning wood too. I know that’s probably taking it too far.) Connecting with their Central Massachusetts roots, Wachusett, a well-established brand, has taken the consumer back “home” through the logo, even if their actual home doesn’t look anything like this picture.
Slow and Steady Wins the Race-
At the start of this project, I had heard of Hopkinton’s Start Line Brewing Company but had never tried their product. Their logo had me hooked though. See I’m kind of a sucker for cute animal logos, like the Chicago Cubs alternate logos, the Pittsburgh Penguins logo, or the Connecticut Tigers’ “Lobster Roll” logo.
For Start Line though, I liked the turtle (as in tortoise and the hare), with the hop drawn in, crossing the starting line of the Boston Marathon since it begins in Hopkinton. In corresponding with Ted from Start Line, he gave me more insight into the design. The brewery’s location is only a mile from the actual starting line of the marathon. The hop is hydroponic which grows on their property. The turtle is in reference not only to the story, since the beer is made “slow and steady,” but also because it is their retirement business. I thought that was a neat look into what, in my opinion, is one of my top five brewery logos in Massachusetts.
The Bold Emblem
Not all my favorite sports team logos have cute animals in them. Take the Montreal Expos or Minnesota Twins logos. Montreal’s has hidden meanings which I’ll let you research on your own time since this is not a baseball logo article, but clearly, there is an “M” in there, and the TC stands for the “Twin Cities”–Minneapolis and Saint Paul, hence the name the “Twins.” Why all this sports talk for a brewery? Well to me, the “S and W” of the Second Wind Brewing Company is just like a classic sports logo. It’s got the “S” with the “W” hidden beneath it. To boot, the W looks as if the wind has sliced the letter apart. Additionally, it’s reminiscent of the Superman “S”.
Living in Plymouth, also home to Second Wind, I saw the logo on T-shirts even before they had a physical brewery. The design intrigued me. Some of their merchandise simply has the S/W symbol. This small brewery in Plymouth has one bold logo. Visiting their brewery on Howland Street, the clean, industrial look permeates through their facility as well. Their logo even adorns the windows of their future second location on Main Street in Plymouth. In a short time, they’ve created a recognizable and appealing logo, definitely making it one of the top five Massachusetts brewery logos
My Top Five Massachusetts Brewery Logos
It was a tough decision since so many Massachusetts breweries have superb logos. After narrowing it down, my High Five of Massachusetts brewery logos are (in no particular order) Treehouse, Night Shift, Wachusett, Start Line, and Second Wind. They all make it for different reasons. From the classic to the relatively new, from Central Mass to the South Shore, these run the gamut of the Massachusetts craft beer scene.
A very special thanks to all these breweries for their inclusion (and graphics) for the article.
Do you agree with my picks? Disagree? Leave a message below with what your favorite Massachusetts brewery logos are.
