“Our iconic West Coast-style IPA is hopped to high hell, with four pounds per barrel,” says David Walker, one of Firestone Walker’s founders. “We felt it was time to create a package that better reflected the beer. This is the look Union Jack deserved all along – loud & proud like the beer itself!”
Union Jack, a trailblazing IPA, is indisputably the standard bearer of the West Coast style. Aggressively hopped and showcasing pineapple, citrus and piney aromas, Union Jack’s grapefruit and tangerine flavors are developed by the brewer’s exceptional dry hopping techniques. But, like all the beers from this award-winning brewery, it is perfectly balanced. Union Jack’s hops are offset by a honey-like malt sweetness. And it goes down easily for a beer with a 7% ABV – another hallmark of this brewery’s outstanding craftsmanship.
The images on the new label, which was designed in-house by Firestone Walker’s creative team, with considerable input from Walker and his co-founder Adam Firestone, tell the brewery’s story. Even the name Union Jack is a nod to the colonial origins of the IPA style, and to the British expatriate [Walker].
But the artwork does so much more than that. It’s a pictorial mashup of all the things that influenced the founders: the London music scene of the Lion’s (David Walker) youth, the attitude of the Bear’s (Adam Firestone, who grew up on the Central Coast surrounded by vineyards and winemaking) California homeland and the power of the West Coast style. All in service to the idea of an unapologetic IPA that, like its influences, will always stand the test of time.
