Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers unveiled new packaging today, the latest move in its 2023 brand refresh.
The announcement follows the debut of the Framingham, Massachusetts-based brewery’s new logo in December, the first step in its brand refresh. The new logo has a “more modern feel,” with the company’s original shield image converted into an ode to a fermentation tank, along with brighter colors and bolder text, detailed in a blog post by graphic designer Katie Hughes, who worked on the project.
The new packaging design will debut across Jack’s Abby’s offerings in mid-January, rolling out through February. The front of cans will feature a larger, more prominent logo and the “family owned and operated” tag above a “straight forward naming and style convention,” to clearly communicate beers “even from a quick scan,” according to a press release.
“Through this process we realized that over time some of the painstaking work that we put into making our lagers has been taken for granted,” Jack’s Abby VP of marketing Rob Day said in the release. “We have not done a great job sharing the details of the process and special ingredients that make our lagers great. We believe this new packaging is a much better reflection of the hard work of our brewers.”
Jack’s Abby’s traditional lagers, such as House Lager helles and Post Shift Bavarian-style pilsner, will feature the Bavarian checker pattern “that’s always been a part of the Jack’s Abby heritage” – a pattern that was eliminated from the logo during the redesign.
Cans for “specialty products” – such as Smoke & Dagger smoked black lager and Bella Lago Italian-style pilsner – will feature art that tells “a deeper story about the beer” and adds “layers of depth to the packaging.”
Jack’s Abby’s carton packaging has also been updated, with a bifurcated slash running through a shield on the front, with “space for creative expression on one side” – such as the image of orange slices for Blood Orange Wheat – and “a clean communication of key details” on the other side – AKA images of the cans inside. Each package also prominently features the company’s “We Live for Lager” tagline.
Along with the new packaging, Jack’s Abby will launch its first 19.2 oz. single-serve cans this year, beginning with its flagship House Lager and Banner City light lager, its latest collaboration with the Boston Celtics, and the “official craft beer” of the NBA franchise.
The two beers in the larger package size have been available at the Celtics’ home arena TD Garden for about two months, but will enter wider distribution in February: Banner City throughout New England and House Lager throughout the brewery’s full footprint (New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, D.C., Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida).
Jack’s Abby was founded in 2011 by brothers Jack, Eric and Sam Hendler. In 2021, the company fell just three places short of the Brewers Association’s top-50 craft breweries by volume, producing 44,700 barrels of beer, a +10% increase year-over-year. The company last rebranded in 2015.