There is (probably) a saying ‘If you don’t know anything about wine, just pick the one with the most beautiful, fascinating, bad-ass or creative label’. Well, that’s most likely hocus-pocus and hardly the case for beers anyway – so many fairly tasty beers wrapped in kinda boring corporate designs. You can’t have everything, right? Wait. Actually, you can. ‘Column Arts Agency’ has joined forces with independent craft beer gurus ‘Honest Brew’ and arts events agency ‘Test Space’, bringing together the ‘noble pursuits of drawing and boozing’ for their terrific collaborative show ‘ .

Stolen © Peter Beatty

Space Chicken © KingTrou

Hop Mule © Mr. Hass

The exhibition at East Street Arts‘ showspace features delicious samples of bottled brewing-awesomeness, graced with the designs of twenty emerging artists, including Column’s Alan Dalby, Mr Hass or Peter Beatty and Test Space’s SixOneSix, Benjamin Murphy or Captain Kris. And there’s even more to it: Apart from these limited edition pieces of art, which are on sale throughout the 10-day pop-up show, the premises are filled with brewing interior and cheeky beer-themed illustrations – ranging from cute and wicked to creepy and hilarious.

Beer Tasting © J. Mason

Live Art © Column Arts Agency

Special Edition ArtBrew © MB

Well, if that’s the first time you heard of Triple Hop, you most definitely missed out on a sublime launch night. Live art, craft beer tasting, live brewing and loads of fun. Sensory overload, here we go: Brightly illuminated in the setting darkness, the space surfaced like a lighthouse from afar and drew curious art lovers, beer connoisseurs as well as arty brew aficionados to 14 Warren Street. Whilst people happily sipped one of Honest Brew’s five tasty crafts, socialized and marvelled at the displayed exhibition pieces, a wicked aquatic-themed mural artwork unfolded bit by bit. Yes, that’s a beer-drinking octopus, believe it or not! Talking of which: If there’s anything I’m taking home (apart from having met a bunch of great people), it’s the fact that the combination of beer and illustrations isn’t as deceptive as it might seem. Chatting with the Honest Brew masterminds about experimenting with ingredients, crafting and designing new flavours, puts a different complexion on their creations: It’s a real piece of art in its own way. As much as the neat illustrations for Space Chicken, Knotted Stem, Side Project, Stolen or Hop Mule differed visually from each other, every brew had its unique scent and mouth-watering taste. Oh well, what’s not to like about Triple Hop? Better catch one before they’re gone!

The exhibition still runs until 3rd November 2013 at East Street Arts showspace, 13-14 Warren Street, London W1T 5LJ and is open for late-night halloween visits on 31^st October, 6-9pm!