The Whitby Station Gallery’s Tortured Artist collaboration with 5 Paddles brewery was launched Friday Feb 10 2017. Tortured Artist is a vanilla porter created by the Whitby based craft brewery in collaboration with the gallery who sourced the label artwork. The label artwork was created by 14 year-old Jade Wysotski and the label itself has been designed by Kate Carson, the gallery’s in-house graphic designer. The launch featured DJ Lawless spinning some tortured artist tunes, a talk by 5 Paddles co-founder Ian Mills and a taste-testing of the porter itself.
Mills related a tale about the initial brewing of the porter saying the smells brought him back to his childhood, in particular summer mornings eating breakfast cereal while watching ‘Gilligan Island’ and ‘I Dream of Genie’ on the telly before heading on his bike for the day; the vanilla in particular was the trigger. He went on to say he believes his brewing method is in a manner a trip back in time through his memories and thus the beers brewed at 5 Paddles are really created from their brewer’s own unique authentic experiences growing up in the Region. The trick is to be mindful in the activity, to slow down and live the experience and enjoy the moments.
Brewing becomes less work and more art in effect. I found it a very interesting talk and the idea of beer in terms of its effects on the senses rather than the ingredients, the art rather than the science, is well, really quite attractive.
The label is also featured on T-shirts available at the Gallery. They have been created by Shirtpunch, deepening the collaboration with local businesses and growing a community from the art out.
The SG Tortured Artist Vanilla Porter is a limited brew but MIlls says he is very happy with the beer and the collaboration so 5 Paddles will be making more.