Buoy Beer Co.
Buoyed up by beer label’s bright red buoy
• By Katherine Lacaze
Buoy Beer Company is situated in a renovated century-old fishing cannery on the
Astoria Riverwalk with large windows overlooking the water and a buoy floating nearby.
These elements, the river, ocean and unique history of
Astoria – are all prominent features of the Buoy Beer
brewery’s essence, marketing manager Jessyka Dart-
Mclean said.
Since opening about five and a half years ago, the
company has worked relentlessly to develop a strong,
identifiable brand, and it’s paid off.
With a logo featuring a large, red buoy, “It’s becoming
very easy to recognize when places have Buoy on tap,”
Dart-Mclean said.
The standard logo – along with the title of each beer
and a short description – is used on a majority of the
brewery’s year-round and seasonal batches of beer.
Occasionally, they will create a specialty beer that
features a slightly different look for its labeling. For the
past two years they have done a one-time production of
barrel-aged, British barleywine-style beer called “Love,
Lost at Sea,” with a side label that features unique art. The
first year, art for the specialty brew was designed by a
tattoo artist from Seattle, and for the second production,
Astoria tattoo artist Chris Lee designed the label artwork.
4 • Craft Beer 2019 • www.DailyAstorian.com
The brewery produces the next year’s rendition of “Love,
Lost at Sea” right after bottling the current year’s batch,
and they are going into their third year of production, Dart-
Mclean said. The brewers experiment with the types of
malts and the amount of hops, but the specialty has been
essentially the same style of beer both years.
For a local festival such as the Pacific Northwest Brew
Cup, Buoy tends to present a beer they want people to get
excited about or know the brewery has on tap, as the
Northwest area is fairly “well-versed in our standard, year-
round brews,” Dart-Mclean said.
This year, they are bringing a seasonal India Pale Lager,
which is a beer they’ve brewed before.
“It’s a favorite of many,” she said. “We’ve decided to
bring that one to let everyone know it’s on tap now.”
Although they hope to win one of the festival’s two
prizes, they also appreciate the friendly competition and
camaraderie cultivated by the event.
“In Astoria, most of the breweries in town are on the
board that puts on the Brew Cup,” Dart-Mclean said. “It’s
just a great way to bring the community together.”
For a local festival
such as Pacific
Northwest Brew Cup,
Buoy tends to
present a beer
they want people to
get excited about or
know the brewery
has on tap.