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Chris leads us through a hallway lined with framed Flying Dog labels from all of the different beers. The labels are like an art series, each piece matching the name and overall feel of that beer. For example, Horn Dog beer features a dog with a horn on his head, Snake Dog has a dog with an elongated neck and snake-dog looking head. The Flying Dog beer, the same beer that gained the brewery notoriety, has a dog attached to a flying apparatus with bat wings, the same wings that have become the Flying Dog logo.
In 1990 by George Stranahan opened the brewery in Aspen. At that time, Stranahan was close friends with Aspen resident and well-known author Hunter S. Thompson. One night, Ralph Steadman, illustrator of Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, came into town and was hanging out with Thompson and Stranahan. It was then, perhaps after many beers, that they came up with the idea to have Steadman illustrate the labels for the brewery. He's done them ever since.
In accordance with a revised statute outlawing bar owners from allowing profanity that "might lead to an altercation," the State of Colorado rejected the Road Dog label in 1995. The label read in part: "Good beer, no shit." Apparently, it's labels that start bar fights, not the drunks.
With the ACLU, Flying Dog challenged the rejection saying it infringed on the Brewery's right to free speech and settled in 2001. Colorado changed the statute and now the label is in circulation.
During the time of the lawsuit, when the label was off the shelves, Steadman designed a different label that read: "Good beer, no censorship." Steadman took the lawsuit seriously because he saw it as a regulation of his artwork and an infringement of his right to free expression.
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