They’ve been around since the beginning of this new wave of Cincinnati craft brewing, but redefining what Mt.Carmel looks like is something that has only recently started to pick up some major steam for the east side brewery.  This is a big picture… not just the new, bright and flashy labels that you’re going to start seeing on your bottles in the coming months.

Let’s start with the really big picture stuff, shall we?

MtCarmelTake A Step Back

Seem by most of Cincinnati’s craft beer community as the OG of Cincinnati beer, when Mike Dewey started brewing beer in the basement of their farmhouse, there wasn’t a Cincinnati craft beer scene.  He brewed because there simply wasn’t good beer to be found.  As time has gone on, though, Mt. Carmel has become something far bigger than a guy in his basement making beer for himself and his friends because they simply couldn’t find good beer.  In fact… it’s hard to not find good beer here in the city anymore… it’s literally everywhere.

So… where does Mt.Carmel fit into this new picture of beer in Cincinnati?

When I wrote about the purchase of some of the land around the brewery back last summer you hopefully started to get a picture of what this brewery is looking to be in the future.  This isn’t about creating the biggest taproom in the city, it’s about keeping what they do firmly tied into their roots of where they started, and what has given this brewery the soul that so many of us here in the city love.

That being said – they are making it pretty apparent to drinkers that they’re pushing what they are doing to new levels, to keep us coming back, and to bring in new drinkers at the same time.  There is simply no other brewery in Cincinnati that can rival the atmosphere of Mt.Carmel’s patio on a sunny summer afternoon.

Grabbing ahold of this atmosphere and running with it, coupled with some major upgrades to their capacity and brew system are pushing them into Cincinnati’s next wave of beer, without changing who they are and what makes the special.  If you’ve missed it, the last year has seen them add on new fermenters (in an entirely newly build section of the brewhouse) a bigger brewhouse… additions to their patio and a regularly changing lineup of entertainment and food trucks at the brewery.

This is good stuff… but there are some more visual changes that you’re going to see as well.

The Branding

I can’t say that I didn’t like their old brand on their packaging…because I actually loved it.  However, it wasn’t catching the eye of the people who are looking at beer on the shelf, which is sort of the entire purpose of the label.  The brewery has spent a lot of time in the last year reworking what it looks like to be Mt.Carmel to go along with all the changes that speak to what it is to be Mt.Carmel.  And that change has started making it’s way out into stores for all of us to enjoy!

The Snapshot Series

We’ve seen this part of the series since they first stared hitting shelves, so you should be pretty familiar with it by now…

Mt. Carmel Imperial IPA
Mt. Carmel Imperial IPA
Mt. Carmel Coffee Brown
Mt. Carmel Coffee Brown
Mt Carmel Ardennes Quad
Mt Carmel Ardennes Quad

The Classic Series

Here’s the part of Mt. Carmel that made us all fall in love in the first place.  Their Classic Series is a solid line up of standard styles, done without a bucket load of frills to make them more than just that… solid examples of standard styles.

Mt. Carmel Amber Ale
Mt. Carmel Amber Ale
Mt. Carmel Blonde Ale
Mt. Carmel Blonde Ale
Mt. Carmel India Pale Ale
Mt. Carmel India Pale Ale
Mt. Carmel Nut Brown Ale
Mt. Carmel Nut Brown Ale
Mt Carmel Stout
Mt Carmel Stout

The Seasonal Series

I’ve been itching to get my hands on some of the new labels for their seasonal offerings, but we haven’t seen them come through yet, so we’ll just have to wait for those.  As they pop up, though I’ll be sure to let everyone know, and update this post with them!  I think that looking at the labels for the classic series, you can get a good idea of what they’ll look like, though I’m sure that there are always chances for a few surprises too!

The Taproom Series

I’ve got another post written that should get updated as we see new releases announced for their taproom series of beer.  The taproom series is some different offerings, and thusly, you’ll see some labels that although they stick to the overall theme of the new branding, they venture off a little bit, and allow some leeway for the personality of each beer to come through a bit more.  It’ll be fun to see some of the creativity come through as these come out!

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