Paukenbrau Brewery

Project overview 

Paukenbrau Brewing started out as the home brewing hobby of a local percussionist in Calgary, Canada. His home brewed beers proved incredibly popular and eventually it expanded into a microbrewery. The name 'Paukenbrau' is from the German words for timpani (a percussion instrument) and brew. Paukenbrau focuses on producing a range of beers that are made using traditional German brewing techniques and ingredients. This includes lagers, pilsners, hefeweizens, bocks, and other styles of beer. They also place a strong emphasis on using high-quality, all-natural ingredients in their beers, and whenever possible they source their ingredients from local farms and producers.

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The goal

Paukenbrau wanted a traditional, classic German style of design in order to reflect the beers they brew. Calgary has seen an influx of trendy microbreweries in the past 5 years, so we decided to stand out from the crowd by avoiding modern or minimalist design styles many breweries are currently using. We also want to avoid being too literal in our historic inspiration by mixing in some more modern typography into menu designs, packaging and signage to keep things fresh.

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The design

For the logo, I used a traditional Germanic Blackletter font with hops drawn in an antique engraved style. I used colors like warm browns and rich golds to match the color palette of the different varieties of ales, porters, lagers, stouts and pilsners Paukenbrau produces. The color palette, illustration style, typography and designs are inspired by the rich history and culture of Germany's beer-brewing traditions and have a rustic, traditional look and feel.