The Art of Beer: ABCs of Beer Bottle Art

The Art of Beer: ABCs of Beer Bottle Art, Beach Edition is the first in a series of ABC books celebrating the imaginative world of beer bottle art. The series showcases the beautiful, funny, ironic, and otherwise remarkable labels that all too often get overlooked, or at best, peeled off the bottles absentmindedly at the bar. These tiny canvases deserve some love! And this book features more than 200 of them from nearly 100 brewers around the world, including Stone, Deschutes, Sqauatters, Speakeasy, Sierra Nevada, Lost Coast, Mendocino, Anchor, Redhook, Boston, Pyramid, Wasatch, Dogfish Head, Baltic, Shmaltz, and Wychwood. 

It's the Beach Edition, so it combines photos of beer bottles with coastal images of California, Oregon, and Belize. And it’s an ABC book, so you know it’s friendly and consumable. Like beer!

You don’t have to be a beer lover to enjoy this book. Just ask Kate’s mom! But if you do love beer, you’re sure to find many of your favorite labels and brewers represented here.

Buy this book. Your coffee table or bar top will thank you!

The book introduces the Whet Whistle Bottle Collection: An accidental collection of more than 1,600 beer bottles gently consumed and carefully preserved over the past four decades. The collector, who wishes to remain anonymous, began saving beer bottles as travel souvenirs in the 70s. Over the years, he added bottles from brewers far and wide, and soon, the collection commandeered the better part of a small storage unit.

The collector's wife insisted that the bottles start earning their keep. So the collector agreed to share them in a book. And after raising a pint or two, he green-lighted the ABC format. The result is 26 still-life panels that celebrate the art of beer. Each panel features up to 11 bottles with 2 things in common: They stand out as excellent designs, and they start with the same letter of the alphabet. For instance, the letter B features Big Daddy, Black & Brew, and Buzzard Breath among others. Hobgoblin, Hoppy Face, and Hop Rising join forces under the letter H. And the letter M showcases perennial favorites, Mud Slinger, Maudite, and Moose Drool.

Today, the collection continues to grow, especially on weekends, holidays, and special occasions, such as Tuesday. Get this book. It’s the most fun you can have without actually drinking the beers!

Kate Wilcox didn’t set out to be a beer bottle art enthusiast. You could say she married into it. A native Oregonian, Kate studied Art and English at Principia, a small (and sadly beer-free) liberal arts college near St. Louis, Missouri.  Traveling home from college, she stopped in Utah and found romance on three fronts: the mountains, rivers, and redrock canyons of the Behave State; the burgeoning intermountain craft beer community; and a certain bottle collector who is finding it increasingly difficult to remain anonymous. The latter of the three eventually brought her to the central coast of California, where she keeps busy as a writer, artist, and photographer.