The magic isn't just in the can for brewmaster Tom Wilder. It's on it.
The co-founder of Young Veterans Brewing Company (YVBC) – one of several breweries participating in the Neptune Festival's Coastal Craft Beer Festival on Aug. 24 and 757 Battle of the Beers on Sept. 7 – has been waiting a long time for somebody to ask him about beer art.
Specifically, what's behind the retro, quirky and often tongue-in-cheek design on the cans created by the Virginia Beach brewery.
"We're goofballs," said Wilder, whose fandom for SpongeBob, "South Park," "Boy Meets World" and nostalgia is reflected on YVBC cans and labels. The business dates back to 2013 when it was one of the first four breweries in Virginia Beach after years of trial and error in his Pungo garage.
"One of the things that really distinguished us was that we put so much effort into the art for every beer that came out," said Wilder, self-taught in graphic design. "I would create a prototype and hand it off to a more professional designer who could see all the things I was doing wrong and take it to the next level."
Ten years ago, the three-barrel brewery was "the only military-themed brewery in the United States," said Wilder, a veteran of the Army National Guard. The early cans were designed with a bent toward World War II propaganda campaigns.
Then the brand let loose with a little more fun, and the art on the cans got a lot more creative.
"We stepped outside of the military box and became a little more colorful and vibrant," Wilder said. "Every beer we thought up, we'd have to figure out, 'What's the concept? What's the whole package?'"
To celebrate Oct. 3, known as "Mean Girls Day" to fans of the movie, YVBC introduced an IPA with Mosaic and El Dorado called Army Pants & Flip Flops.
"Of all the names we could have picked from that movie, Army Pants and Flip Flops made the most sense," Wilder said of the can, colored a Barbie pink and marked with quotes from the film.
Paying homage to "Boy Meets World," YVBC's sea-salted sour with pineapple, lime and toasted coconut is Cory & Topangose, with the beloved young couple kissing on the can.
"We wanted it to look like the intro scene from Season I," Wilder said.
Death by PowerPoint playfully salutes every service branch's penchant for PowerPoint overload by featuring a grim reaper on the can of the black lager.
Gummy Neutron plays off boy genius Jimmy Neutron and yes – blue gummy bears are an essential ingredient in the hazy IPA.
"Anything that's really silly is close to my heart," Wilder said. "We order blue gummies by the pound."
The raptor from "Jurassic Park" is the dominant character on Life Finds a Way, a lager released during the pandemic.
"We kept seeing so many people releasing beers and a lot of them were doom and gloom," Wilder said. "We wanted something with hope."
In recognition of Pride Month, Roy G Biv is a lager brewed with lemon, lime and tangerine. Its can features an empowered woman in rainbow suspenders surrounded by fruits and flags.
Tap Tap Taparoo is a nod to "Happy Gilmore." Bottom Rock and Pinky Out are odes to SpongeBob, and What About Us Lagers references "South Park."
YVBC's top seller, Pineapple Grenade, shows a smirking pineapple with a military helmet marching, the crown of the fruit visible.
Not all the beers are available anymore, but the art lives on. YVBC sells 11x17 posters of each of the beers at The Bunker brewpub at 211 21st Street.
The brewery, with a taproom on Horse Pasture Road, will open a third location this month at the new music venue The Annex, in Norfolk at 26th and Church Street.
Neptune Festival's Coastal Craft Beer Festival is 3-8 p.m., on Saturday , Aug. 23 at 17th Street at the Oceanfront. 757 Battle of the Beers on Sept. 7 is at State Military Reservation in Virginia Beach.
