Boston Beer

You may not think that tap handles would be designed by IDEO. But in the early 2000s Boston Beer Company approached IDEO to create an innovative tap handle for their flagship beer Samuel Adams Lager. The interesting part about tap handles is, that people enter a bar and within less than 5 seconds they make a decision based on the quick glance along the stanchion, on which a variety of handles is fighting for attention. Our approach was to start with a very modern appearance, made out of quality materials, like anodized aluminum and injection modeled plastic. The top is a molded, translucent polymer that captures the light from the bar. With its changing light and depth it catches people’s attention. This tap handle, which comes in a Seasonal version with interchangeable labels as well, was distributed over the entire US and could be seen in bars, restaurants, airports, etc for several years.