New look for Four Peaks’ iconic Arizona beers

The beer case at local grocery stores will look a bit different in December as Arizona’s biggest brewery, Four Peaks, unveils bolder new packaging for labels like Kilt Lifter and Hop Knot.

The company, which was bought by Anheuser-Busch InBev in December 2015, celebrated its 21st anniversary this year and was due for an update, cofounder Jim Scussel said.

“Four Peaks hasn’t really changed its labels since its founding in 1997,” communications manager Zach Fowle said. “While that’s good in one sense, people have a reliable brand to look for, they were a little dated and behind the times.”

The new labels on the bottles and cans also will include a “best by” date that’s about 120 days from the date the beer was packaged to help customers know whether the beer is fresh.

“The born-on date, nobody knows what that means,” Scussel said. “The best-by date takes all the guesswork out of it.”

Other changes include selling 15packs of cans rather than 12-packs and adding 25-ounce cans of Kilt Lifter and a new India pale ale that will be introduced around the time spring training baseball begins.

Four Peaks also plans to package its Brut IPA and Grapefruit Radler for the first time, he said.

Retailers will sell the last of their Four Peaks beers in the old packaging in the next few weeks and roll out the new labels, he said.

The new labels were designed by Karen Windsor-Worrel, who owns KWW Design in Queen Creek and designed the packaging Four Peaks has used the past 21 years.

“It was really important to stay local and use someone that knew our brand and had history with us,” Scussel said.

Windsor-Worrel said the goal was to keep the designs familiar enough to be recognizable to old fans but bold enough to attract new customers.

“It was due for an update,” she said. “Those packages and stuff need to be refreshed from time to time to keep up with the trends and demographic changes.”