DEAD GAUCHO

Label for craft beer bottle inspired in the adventures of Giuseppe Garibaldi in south America, when he fought with the gauchos and still had hopes to make a better world through the tip of his sword.

“As bitter as death”

The idea was to create a beer with mate without recreating a full new recipe. As mate is bitter in origin it replaced the hops that are usually added at the beginning of the boiling in order to create bitterness. The base recipe was an IPA but the beer came out very bitter, as bitter as death like the gauchos in South America commonly say.

Fully unfolded coffin-shaped label design reading DEAD GAUCHO, mate IPA, and As Bitter As Death, with a hop and malt intensity chart and the illustrated gaucho lying inside
Black-and-white 1868 photograph of a gaucho in traditional dress, used as visual research
Gaucho from Argentina, photographed in Peru, 1868

The background

Mate is the drink of the Gauchos and since the beer came out bitter as death I thought I could do a label with a dead gaucho, in a coffin.

Having to use a base image for my illustration I have used a picture taken from the cover of the biography of Giuseppe Garibaldi.

Black-and-white 1866 portrait photograph of Giuseppe Garibaldi seated, used as the reference for the illustrated gaucho's face

Layout

I wanted to make a foldable label so the character could be revealed. That gave me not only space to add the details about the beer but also a cover to add the name.

Photograph of the printed foldable label applied to an actual beer bottle, opened to reveal the gaucho illustration inside
Folding and application of label on the bottle

The beer was never commercialised.