The Evil Dr. Franc-N-Blanc - French Blanche (Witbier)

As my our second seasonal beer we decided to make a wheat beer. But not just any wheat beer, we wanted a European inspired Wit, something that made use of traditional ingredients like coriander and bitter orange peel. Witbier is a classic, it is easy to drink and very refreshing, and there are bunch of them out there, so beer lovers will know what it is. It's a great beer anytime, but to me it says find a patio in the sun and enjoy the day.

Our prototype turned out to be fantastically quaffable, so we were happy with our creation. This is definitely a beer we could go to market with. I think once the tap room opens that this beer, or some variant of it, will find itself on our taps quite regularly.

Now do we market it as a White Ale, a Witbier, or a French Blanche. The French version kind of stuck in my mind for a few days. I tossed a few names around, kept coming back to Franc, Franc-enstein, or something Franc-y. And then since it was a Wit, White beer, it would be a beer Blanc, and the two words just combined into Franc N Blanc. Sounds like Frankenstein right? So it became the Evil Doctor Fran-N-Blanc.

So with this concept I approached my friend Bill Hrenchuk. He created a logo for my other business - GameKnight, as well as did a lot of mural work there for me. I have some of his quirky pen drawing featuring dragons and goblins hanging up around my shop. I like his work, so I asked him if he could come up with a "Mad Doctor" character. Bill does awesome line drawings, in both pencil as well as pen and ink. I knew his art style would look great on a can, very unique and different from what I see out there. A few sketches later we had our character - The Evil Doctor Franc-N-Blanc!

Bill Hrenchuk is an entirely self trained Manitoba Artist. He is an avid fan of Dungeons & Dragons, a game he started playing over 40 years ago. He started drawing pen and ink drawings of "Flint & Steel", two characters of his own design. These were picked up and published by Dragon Magazine between 1995 and 1998. This iconic D&D focused publication was widely distributed all over North America, particularly in hobby and fantasy based gaming stores. In addition to this he has created many tattoo designs (inked by other tattoo artists) and realistic pencil drawing of household pets. Medieval Fantasy remains his favourite subject matter, and thus his mural company is aptly named - Medieval Murals.

Here in the gallery, besides the finished label are some concept sketches done in pen and ink. I also added some art from 2 movie posters. I had sent these to both Bill and my graphic designer Cyndi to use as reference. As you see we followed those for colour suggestions, and the whole project came together. ***TEASER *** As I write this (in March 2026) Bill is currently working on another Franc-N-Blanc-ish label for us.