Moonwake Beer Co has launched Shore Lager, a new lemon and lime brew, packed with local folklore and famous faces, including the water spirit, Shellycoat, the spectral Twelve O’Clock Coachman and Leith boxer, Tancy Lee. The lager has a purpose. The Shore’s food and drink community in the Leith area has been hit hard since Covid, with flexible working, traffic changes and the cost of living making it tougher for local businesses to thrive. Shore Lager was made to give people a fresh reason to come back – a beer that’s social, sunny (even in winter!) and proudly rooted in the area, made to be poured in the bars, restaurants and cafés that make the Shore what it is.

So agency, Leith, has made the lager a symbol the Shore can rally behind with an identity that’s mischievous, rooted and unmistakably local. On the can, the letters of SHORE LAGER radiate like sunbeams from a bright yellow O. Around them, it’s built almost like a banknote, layered with tiny details and hidden references that reward anyone who looks twice. It folds in the Shore’s topography, the blue and yellow Sunshine on Leith palette, and a line-up of local legends ready for their own series: Mary, Queen of Scots, the ghostly Twelve O’Clock Coachman, the sea bogle Shellycoat, Tancy Lee, pop art pioneer Eduardo Paolozzi, and Mr Penny, who was known for leaving a coin on the benches where he slept.

Typographic ripples swirl around the can carrying fragments of Leith’s stories and myths, and the campaign picks up where the can leaves off. The launch poster, “Sunshine on Leith. Now in cans”, sets the can against a vintage view of the Shore. Two story posters then let the locals do the talking. Mary, Queen of Scots, who landed at Leith in 1561, fronts “Great with a head. Or without”. The Banana Flats offer “a hint of lemon and lime with brutalist bananaesque undertones”. Each sign off with the place behind the joke – “Where the Queen of Scots returned” and “Where the Banana Flats stand proud”.

Rob Petrie, head of design at Leith, stated, “Leith [the area] has more stories per square foot than anywhere in Scotland, and we wanted the can to feel like you were hearing them from someone at the bar. You can drink it in a minute, but you’ll still be spotting things on the label on your third. The posters are those stories let loose.”

Erin Whyte, marketing manager at Moonwake, added,“The Shore isn’t just where our brewery lives. It’s a vibrant destination of independent businesses that make Leith so special. When Rob and the team at Leith approached us with the idea of creating a destination beer, we jumped straight in. Our team crafted a crisp lager with a lemon and lime twist that feels like sunshine in a can. It’s built to remind people why the Shore is the ultimate place to eat, drink, shop and visit. After our keg soft-launch sold out across local venues within weeks, bringing it to cans was the natural next step.”

Credits
Creative Agency: Leith
Head of Design: Rob Petrie
Copywriter: Colin Montgomery
Client: Moonwake
Beer Sales: Golnar Mattot
Head of Production: Vinny Rosario
Marketing Manager: Erin Whyte