Rockwell Beer’s Crisp Chinos Can Illustrates What a Lager Would Wear

The art was inspired by those McCall’s patterns that let you sew your own clothes

Apr 9, 2024 at 6:45 am

The label art was inspired by McCall's sewing patterns, popular in the middle of the last century. ZACHARY LINHARES

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The beer: Crisp Chinos
The brewery: Rockwell Beer Company

If your beer wore pants, what kind of pants would it wear? It’s a question that lingers on the minds of Rockwell Beer Company Head Brewer Jonathan Moxey and Zack Kinney, owner of Kings County Brewery Collective in Brooklyn. The longtime friends collaborated for the second time in 2019 to produce Crisp Chinos, a rice lager with flair.

Moxey and Kinney had answered the burning question once before, when they came together to brew Sensible Slacks, a porter, for a collaboration between Perennial Ales and Kings County Brewery Collective. For the second time around, Moxey says the two “took Sensible Slacks for a walk.”

Rockwell’s head brewer speaks to the difficulty in coming up with beer names, saying inside jokes work well: “If there’s no need to know the setup for the joke, that’s a good beer name.”

For the label art, he called upon his friend and illustrator Adam Fischer. Moxey recalled memories of McCall’s Sewing Patterns hanging in the aisles at WalMart or strewn about at Grandma’s house. The envelopes provided sketches and outlines of patterns for a particular piece of clothing to assist with DIY fashion. Moxey imagined seeing the eponymous chinos in a similar sketch.

Fischer swapped Moxey’s vision for reality. The Crisp Chinos’ label depicts faceless models in numbered fashion sketches of chinos — straight out of grandma’s sewing catalog. The color palette pops from the shelves with lime green, sunflower yellow, orange and royal blue chinos modeled against a sky blue background. No need to look further for fashion inspiration than the cuffed chinos, belted chinos, plaid chino shorts, and chinos with deep pockets styled on the side of this beer can.

click to enlarge

ZACHARY LINHARES

Rockwell Beer Company's Crisp Chinos lager is a successful to the Sensible Slacks porter.

Similar to the color palette, the flavor is bright yet refined. Crisp Chinos struts with an elevated profile: dry-hopped and 5.2 percent ABV. It tastes simple and slightly citrusy with a subtle aroma of fresh herbs. Like a perfect pair of chinos, the brew feels refined yet breezy.

The rice lager has made big strides locally. It hit the market in 2019, originally brewed just in time for baseball season. Now it stays in vogue year round.

Moxey admits, “When I drink Chinos, I’m usually wearing a pair of work pants,” but suggests you pull out those salmon-colored chinos for the occasion. No worries if your wardrobe lacks — a crispy spring day and the great outdoors will suffice. The head brewer also recommends Crisp Chinos paired with a slice of lime.

Lauren Harpold tells the stories behind the art gracing the cans or bottles of local brews. Got a suggestion for her to explore next? Email her at [email protected]