Beak Brewery x Faber & Faber limited edition release featuring The Lost Folk book extract; © Beak Brewery
Craft beer packaging has long been a playground for bold visuals and boundary-pushing graphics. From psychedelic illustrations to stripped-back typography, the humble can often acts as a tiny aluminium billboard, selling not only a drink but also an aesthetic. Yet as the space becomes saturated with increasingly elaborate artwork, some brewers are looking for new ways to stand out.
Beak Brewery, based in Lewes, East Sussex, has found a novel solution: turning the can into a literal page. In an ongoing collaboration with publisher Faber & Faber, Beak is using its cans to showcase some of the UK’s most exciting literary voices, with each limited-edition release featuring a different five-minute read printed directly onto the label.
“We launched the Beak Book project in April 2023 in collaboration with Max Porter,” explains Beak’s founder and director, Daniel Tapper. “Since then, we’ve released three more beers with Faber authors including Thurston Moore, Camille Ralphs and most recently Lally MacBeth, whose new book, The Lost Folk, is a new manifesto for contemporary British folk culture.”
Tapper frames the project as an antidote to distraction culture: “Our labels have always been a canvas for creativity, featuring the work of painters, photographers and illustrators. This collab encourages our customers to step away from their phones and enjoy a quiet read with a stunning beer.” It’s an experiment in slowing consumption down, with a sense of ritual in peeling back the label to reveal a new text that’s intended to be savoured.
The next stage of the collaboration will be showcased at Pages at Manchester Museum on October 10, part of the city’s week-long event series, The Cultural Welcome. As well as Beak and Faber, the event will pair independent breweries Track and Verdant with publishers Picador and Granta, respectively. They’ll be joined by authors Rebecca Watson, Philip Marsden and Dr Tiffany Jenkins for a night of readings, book signings and, of course, craft beer (alcohol free options will also be available).
For Beak’s slot, Watson will be discussing her Dylan Thomas Prize-shortlisted novel I Will Crash, cementing the brewery’s reputation not just as a maker of acclaimed IPAs and porters, but as an unlikely custodian of printed, pocket-sized literature. It raises a bigger question: in a crowded craft beer market, is the future of the can not just to look good, but to actually say something?