New Caps!

This was actually going to be a post at first about what brand name has the most entrants in my collection.  But then I got a e-mail from my friend over at Waiting For God that she was sending me some caps, so I decided to hold off until I got them to begin.  She had started to describe them over the phone to me, but I told her just send the whole bunch.  Reason being, the differences in caps are many and subtle.

For example, Thursday Scrappy and I were behind Pierre's in Canterbury.  (for those not in the know about the midwest's largest entertainment center, google Pierres Fort Wayne.)  There we found among others, these two members of the family.

The silver one is a Coors Light tall twist, which I only had a regular crown like that before.  The other was a Bud Light Lime- and I had one of those.  But if you look at the one I had...

...you see the swoosh runs right through the "Lime" on it, and stops short on the new one.  Plus, there is a color difference.  Things like this, that on sight trigger my "spider sense" couldn't be conveyed well on the phone.  So let's take a look at "Norma's Newbies".

Top left is a Yeunglings, basically the same as the one I had, but with a darker background and brighter reds.  Next is a Dundee Ales and Lagers, which is what Genessee switched the name of their craft beer to when they decided "J.W. Dundees honey brown lager" was too long.  The actual honey brown has went back to that since, with the other craft beers still using this cap.  The next one was hard to figure- a deer in gold with the only text "Twist off only" in white on bottom right. But it had a trivia question about Australia on the bottom, and that was the clue we needed to learn that this is a Toohey's New.  Still not sure what the buck has to do with Down Under, but whatever.  Second row is another flavor (and color) from Dogfish Head.  Apparently the pink ones (like the one I had) is their 60-minute IPA (India Pale Ale), and this red one is a 90-minute IPA.  The difference?  If you're a drinker, the red one's more bitter.  If you're a collector, it's a different color, duh!  Next is a Harps, and it is close to the one I have, except for the tiny harp above the word "Harp", which you can see that I don't have on my other one.

Next is a cap that helped me with another in the collection.  It is labelled "Two Hearted Ale", and is brewed by Bells.  Now, I found nothing on my first Bells to indicate origin, other than a vague reference to a brew-pub in England that made beer.  But searching out this, Laurie found that it is made by a micro outfit in Kalamazoo.  The name, I guess, stems from the fact that it is "massively hopped" once in the kettle and again in the fermenter.  And the original Bells I have is their flagship Amber Beer.

Then we come to the Sam Adams Seasonal, one of three I now have.  The first is the same logo on a pale green back with a gold edge; the second is exactly like this one other than it has a baby blue edge instead of the orange.  They are all different flavors, but I could not deduce which one was which of a certain.  I guess I'll have to look in the beer aisle when the holidays approach.  Next comes a Bass, much like the other 2 I have.  But where one has a somewhat larger logo, and another has a more flat background, this one is both more metallic and a bit offset compared to the others.  Here's the closer one to it, along with the Seasonal with the baby blue.

Next comes a Thirsty Dog Breweries, the standard cap for all the varieties from this micro out of Dayton.  The thirsty dog has a mug (or perhaps one of those little St. Bernard barrels) under his chin.  Finally, we have a Dos Equis, and unlike the one in my last post, there is no other text than the double x.

And there you have it, and "Norma's Newbies" bring us to a total of 479 caps.  And that brings us back to my original thought- what do I have the most of?  Well, given that I am very particular in my dividing (e.g. Budweiser does not= Bud Light does not= Bud Light Lime, and Samuel Adams Seasonal with baby blue would not = Sam Adams seasonal IF I knew what was which, I have a total of 211 different brand names.  136 of these are one-and-dones, 27 are twofers, and another twenty are at the three or four mark.  That said, here's my top 20:

18 (tie): Coors, Colt 45, Labatt Blue, and Lowenbrau at 5 apiece.

16 (tie): Drewrys and Old Milwaukee, 6 each.

14 (tie): Hamms, Michelob, 7 each.

10 (tie): Coors Light, Little Kings, Michelob Light, Rolling Rock, 8 apiece.

9. Schlitz, 9.

7 (tie): Busch, Falstaff, 10 each.

5 (tie): Bud Light, and ironically, Miller Lite, 11 each.

3 (tie): Pabst Blue Ribbon, Strohs, 13 apiece.

2. Miller High Life, 16.

And at #1 Budweiser with 30, including the one you can see on the post over at TAW I found with Scrappy a couple days ago.

Whew! Thatsa lotta beer, dudes!