This article was written by Jared Schoenemann, a long time friend of Silodrome and the founder of the new “Hues Of Brews.” When possible we like to turn the keyboard over to the people behind the vehicles, art, equipment, and films on Silodrome to let them tell the story in their own words.
Hues Of Brews
The idea for Hues of Brews was actually started by Clarkson, Hammond, and May and my love of old Top Gear.
If anyone had a car that was remotely close to brown, they were relentlessly mocked. Always. Then one day I heard Jim Gaffigan’s voice in my head saying, “Hey fella, I like brown.” From a gold flake vintage Triumph to a rusty 70’s shag carpet to my old beige Volvo 240, I’ve always loved the humble color brown.
Later on I read my beloved Guinness is actually “dark red”. Skeptical as I was, I wanted to bring a Guinness into the studio and investigate. Life got in the way, but it was always in the back of my mind.
Years later I stumbled upon Brittany Wright’s fantastic Wright Kitchen work with vegetable and food gradients. She took a simple idea and executed it very well. I thought it was just so cool and inspiring. Suddenly it all flashed back: My love of brown, Guinness being “red”, beer being brown, tons of different browns, bubble similarities, bubble differences – then a light flashed… “Wouldn’t it be cool to photograph as many beers as possible and line them up all on one page to compare?” I thought.
Hues of Brews was born.
Corona – Mexico
*Fun act: Hammond’s “A Symphony in Beige” comment about their senior-friendly “Rover James” was the inspiration for my “A Symphony in Green” Kauai island project.
Creating The Images
With countless beers in the world, we started with what we could get our hands on (namely the most popular selling brands). We shot for months, enduring many side-eyes from shop clerks glaring at my cart overflowing with nothing but hundreds of bottles of beer (but I always brought my 6 year old daughter along, so I had a modicum of respectability).
The work was very time-consuming, with a yield of probably 2 good shots out of 150 taken (if that). So many beers shot and then dumped down the sink, all the fish in Santa Monica must have been drunk. Editing was intensive and slow, but the good shots were coming out beautifully.
Once the first volume of images were done and the website built, it was exactly what I had in mind and very exciting to see it all come together. We’ve had a great response so far and things are growing steady.
Going forward, we aim to keep on shooting anything we can get our hands on. We’re open to work with any brewers and happy to create bespoke fine art of their handiwork. As long as brewers keep brewing, we’ll keep shooting.
In my job as a photographer, I work with people, kids and animals a lot. I love it, as you never really know what you’re going to get (this is especially true with kids and animals, which in the studio are pretty much the same thing). That’s a big part of what makes Hues of Brews fascinating to me as an art project. Sometimes we get a simple yet elegant gradient of bubbles and color, while other times faces, shapes and galaxies appear, all to be gone in a flash. It’s so much fun and I sincerely hope others enjoy the work as much as I do.
Guinness – Ireland
The Final Images
All our prints are made to order by the world’s best lab on Fuji Crystal Archive Maxima paper, which is a traditional photo-chemical paper. After many tests, the Fuji paper had the most consistent results and blew us away with its color, depth and clarity, and the lab with their stellar customer service and consistency.
All prints are produced on the same paper, just finished in different ways (acrylic, framed acrylic, matted with museum glass, or just the print itself). Sizes come in 10×8”, 20×16” and 30×24.”. Of course, we produce custom orders, too.
All images were shot at f8 with a Zeiss 100mm Milvus Macro lens. The shallow depth of field combined with Zeiss’s legendary 3d effect produce outstanding results.
Aside from the prints, we found a company that creates fantastic acrylic coasters and added those, along with some beautiful, robust iPhone covers. We’re adding a few shirts soon, too.
We are deeply humbled and grateful for all the positive feedback and customers so far. If anyone has questions or comments, please feel free to contact us anytime. We’d love to hear from you. Thank you so much.
Heineken – Amsterdam
About Me
Jared Schoenemann is a photographer, writer and artist in South Pasadena, California. He began his career in video after studying video production in art school and cinematography in film school. He now specializes in images of people, kids and animals for commercial and editorial clients, while still creating personal work.
When not shooting, he writes a children’s book series that helps kids cultivate common sense and critical thinking skills, adventurous screenplays and is a partner at Hues of Brews. He spends the rest of his time running around with his daughter, tending the plants in his jungle home, cooking and washing endless dishes.
Stella Artois – Belgium
Pabst Blue Ribbon – USA
Blue Moon – USA
Warsteiner – Germany
Two Pitcher Radler – USA
Miller High Life – USA
Fat Tire – USA
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
