Dapper Dan's IPA

Dapper Dan’s IPA is Bone Hook brewing Company’s number 1 selling beer in the brewpub and in the local marketplace. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Dapper Dan’s was not named after the owner, Dan Bilzor. Here’s the real background story. Dapper Dan’s was originally called Dirty Dave’s IPA when it was first introduced in 2016. This name never sat well with the entire staff. As the marketing team would often say, “Never name something ‘dirty’ if it is supposed to go in your mouth…. Unless it’s a martini." When it came for an overhaul of the branding, we changed the Dirty Dave’s into Dapper Dan’s in honor of the owner’s maternal grandfather and namesake, Daniel Punzo. In fact, the owner wears his grandfather’s wedding ring in his honor. The ring is engraved with the date May 6, 1940 and just celebrated its 80th birthday.

In 1931, Daniel Punzo attended Cook Academy, a boarding school in New York. He played football for his school and when the team traveled, they dressed to the nines. Dan quickly got the nickname Dapper Dan, for obvious reasons. Ok, now we had a name for a beer and a family story to tell.  We just needed an image and a beer can label. When brainstorming a can label worthy of a Dapper Dan moniker, the owner explained his vision to the graphic artist.

“The term ‘dapper’ is old school cool and confident. Dapper Dan should be decked out in a pin striped suit with matching fedora, while leaning back on a brick wall, sipping a beer outside of a speakeasy.” Attached is the initial rendering. Our graphic artist, Christian Pugh, aka Choochy Bear, with little more than a picture and a 2-sentence description as his guide, nailed the imagery in his first draft.

We are very proud of the final product, both the beer and the imagery. Here’s a cool tidbit after the fact. When the graphic artist made the label, he had no idea of the back story. He knew nothing about who Dapper Dan really was, his relationship to the owner, or the wedding ring. But take a look at the streetlamp in the label. A beam of light lands squarely on Dapper’s ring finger. If you look closely, the light reflects off of a wedding ring! Choochy Bear added this bit to the label without even knowing the backstory. It’s the kind of story that can’t make up if you tried. We could tell you all about the IBUs, ABV, brewing process, etc…. but we’d rather tell the story behind the beer. Come to Bone Hook Brewing Company located in Naples, Fl and come try the Dapper Dan’s IPA for yourself. Cheers!