Pretty sure you should be familiar with one of the most popular products if you’re going to be giving the tours. Even Lady Friend caught the faux pas, and we both rolled our eyes. Pretty simple question that she should have been able to answer. Earlier, in the bar area, Lady Friend and I had overheard a woman ask one of the female staff what the Oktoberfest beer was, and the girl stammered, stuttered, and passed the question off to another tour guide. Standard speech, though our tour guide, Joe, had it down cold. Then the info: beer is made from hops, barley, blah blah blah. Ours was the UFO Hefeweizen, an unfiltered wheat beer (UFO stands for Un Filtered Offering, and is one of their product lines). Into the brewery! They hand you a tasting glass and pour your first beer once you enter the brewing floor. That light pouring through the windows is actually from Heaven. Then it was zero hour through the doors, no looking back. We milled around the retail/ bar area while a previous group did their tasting. That’s about the cheapest you’ll find Harpoon for, and it’s worth it. 22oz bombers of the flagship brew, Harpoon IPA, will only set you back $3, and six packs are $8. Lots of tshirts, sweatshirts, glassware and, of course, beer begging you to adopt it like a sad little puppy at the animal shelter. Harpoon also goes a little nutty with merchandise, just not to the extent of Magic Hat. $5 later, you’re headed up the stairs to the retail area. You go around the right side of the building following the tour/ brewery store signs. When we finished, the 1:30 tour only had about seven or eight people lined up. We got there at noon for the 12:30 slot, and had about 25 other people in our group. Get there earlier rather than later, as tours tend to sell out. It’s $5 for an hour tour, including a 20 minute or so tasting session, tasting glass and handy little pamphlet explaining the myriad of tasty drinky drinks. They do tours and tastings every Saturday 10:30a-5p, and Sunday 11:30a-3p. Jeezum Crow! (Thanks for getting that one stuck in my head, LB). She even parks across the street from the brewery and works about a block away. Lady Friend, despite living in MA for a number of years, had not. After all, if beer drinkers had not been willing to embrace change over the past 30 years, we would all still be drinking light yellow lagers and not knowing what we were missing! I couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead for Harpoon.Like any true Bostonian/ Massachusettserite/ New Englander, I’ve been to Harpoon for the tours and tastings several times. “The new IPA package and refreshed Harpoon logo are just the beginning,” Kenary added. The transformation will be complete by the end of 2016. Next in line for the refresh is Harpoon Take 5 Session IPA, the brewery’s newest year-round beer released this past May, followed by their summer seasonal beer. “We needed to do a better job of communicating who we are in our packaging - we needed to let our personality shine through.” Boston-based brand strategy firm Catapult Thinking provided guidance through the process. “Our goal was to create something that would stand out on the shelves and draw the eye to the package,” Bailey said. RELATED: Talking cut-and-stack labels with Oak Printing The IPA package was designed by Harpoon’s in-house creative team, led by Creative Director Adam Bailey. New elements include a bolder, larger Harpoon logo, a larger background check pattern and a tiger icon. The new design maintains several of the classic elements from the original Harpoon IPA package including the checked background pattern, the bluish-purple and orange color scheme and the tiger lilies. But we are working hard to do a better job of telling our story, especially to beer drinkers who may not know us well.” “We are not changing who we are, or most importantly, the beer inside the bottle, can or keg. “As we head into our 30th year, it’s time for our logo and our branding to evolve,” said Harpoon CEO and Co-Founder Dan Kenary. While there have been tweaks to the Harpoon look over the years, this is the first major design refresh in Harpoon’s history. Next up for a refresh: Harpoon IPA - the first in a total brand redesign. There are more, and this makes sense because we know the impact of marketing and labels in particular has been big on buying decisions. This usually means it is time for a new look. With so many new craft breweries (the most ever, actually), the older guard needs to defend its well earned turf.
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