Carpe Diem Mañana

This is our new label for a new beer called ‘Carpe Diem Mañana’.  So far, we’ve released this beer with just the ‘APTH’ on bottles as designer Benjamin Kinzer developed what you see above.  Currently, the label is in the hands of the TTB who are evaluating whether or not this label meets their requirements for the marketing and sale of malted beverages.  So silly!  I envision them hassling me that we left the ‘O’ out of one of our assumed business names…in order to sell my bottles outside the state of Oregon, you may remember that They wouldn’t allow me to use the word ‘Apothecary’ on our bottles, so we came up with ¿APOTH? and registered that name so we could have something for our company name.  Again, so silly.  Now, we have APTH.  Most likely I will be registering another DBA with the State of Oregon so the TTB will allow us to forgo the O.

Anyway, and more importantly, about the beer.  It is a departure from our ‘standard’ line of ales that age for over a year in barrels as this beer is packaged within just a few months of brewing.  It’s very hoppy (gasp) and is our fond testimony to a period of brewing history where creative and observant brewers noticed that with the use of fairly large quantities of hops, their beer would be ‘preserved’ and last a while longer without spoiling.  In modern brewery production, instead of inhibiting bacteria with high hopping rates, breweries nuke their stainless steel tanks with some pretty gnarly chemicals and create a sanitary environ where a single organism of their choosing can be added for predictable results.  This is ok, I guess.  I sure drink enough beer created in this manner to know not to throw rocks at glass houses.  BUT, in our humble attempts to create unique beer influenced by days of yore, I find it much more interesting to use Mother Nature instead of industrial chemicals.  This is that unanswerable ‘why’ that I will fail to explain.  Perhaps there really is no explanation, only people who get it and those who don’t.  Instead of using high hopping rates to make the beer last longer, we are using hops to inhibit bacteria from producing too much acid, and allowing us to serve the beer in a younger state.  This is our futuristic twist and hopefully proves that we are not trying to make stone age beer.  We are trying (some would say succeeding omg) to make beer that honors its natural and creative heritage by avoiding industrial products and techniques.

Blah blah blah.  Some of you may realize that so far I’ve avoided an acronym that is so very prevalent in the craft beer industry today…and I absolutely love acronyms!  You will also notice that the famous acronym does not grace our new label.  This is for a couple of reasons.    firstly, if we said that this beer is an IPA (there, I said it) people would a) wonder why it costs $20 and b) wonder why it doesn’t taste like all the other IPA’s out there.  Secondly, I abhor following the masses, so it is with equal parts reluctance and excitement that we move forward with this product at all…

And there, I hope you can see, is the anthem that is ‘Carpe Diem Mañana’.  Seize the day some other time.  Idle time is necessary for creative thinking.  Change the world with imagination.  Etc., etc.

The bottle this beer arrives in will be finished with a silver crown cap instead of a cork and our significantly different label.  Who knows?  Maybe it will be too confusing for the consumer and the beer won’t sell because they won’t know that ‘APTH’ is also ‘¿APOTH?’ is also ‘The Ale Apothecary’.  It is an experiment wrapped in an enigma, presented with a blown kiss.

Such a funny world we’ve made for ourselves.  Sigh.  There are probably way too many people to overcome our conditioning that we don’t need much of what we have or want.  Today I watched a colony of ants removing wood particles from a log by the river to create more room for something.  A larger living space?  The queen’s new bedroom?  They worked fervently, only removing tiny bits at a time…but there were so many of them, the frass built up quickly.  Maybe they are done by now, reclining by their new, state of the art baby center, hoisting celebratory ant drinks and getting a few good laughs in.

How much of our activity actually propels us forward in becoming a better group of humans?  Unfortunately, I believe that we have very little control or influence over what we do most of the time.  The system that is Big Brother is pretty complex.  Also, the threat of ‘going without’, whether by choice or not, cuts against the grain of our collective American mentality.  It’s un-American, actually.  Meanwhile, California is drying up.  More and more folks are taking up their place at street corners with cardboard signs.  Our ‘All men are created equal’ claim is being tested pretty severely, and I’m spending my time focusing on organisms that can’t be seen with the naked eye!   However, what I see in this brewery, where nature runs wild, is that with simple boundaries these organisms work symbiotically to create something truly amazing.  I am lucky to be one of those organisms, but often I notice that my multi-cellular status gets in the way.  It’s a blessing and a curse that we are so smart and stupid at the same time, overthinking the mundane and ignoring uncomfortable realities.  And, in these moments of confusion and helplessness, no matter how much I’m compelled to simply bash my head against a wall, I choose sedating myself with a variety of intoxicants.  Life gets a little dreamy and soft, the rough edges seem more like silver linings and hope creeps back in.  Alright!  Back to creating the queen’s new bedroom.  Actually, on second thought I’m going to make some nachos.

carpe diem mañana