Beer show

The 37th annual Ft. Wayne Turkey Trot beer collectables show, as a matter of fact.  Just look at the prizes from this trip!

Yup, 13 new caps join the family today.  And if I'd have been a rich man, there'd have been signage, taps, cans, cartons, etc., as well.  But I was a good boy, and here are my prizes.

First we have an Old Crown Ale that the guy who sold me the case the other day brought in for me.

In addition to that cork, we also got these three oldies but goodies.  Kamms was the first brewery in Indiana to re-open after prohibition.  The plant burned in 1950 and closed the next year, but got rehabilitated a few years back into Mishawaka's 100 Center:

Full of restaurants, pubs, and apartments.

The Drewrys and Berghoff are pretty self-explanitory.  But the cork Drewrys was not the ONLY Drewrys...

This was the standard cap when I was growing up, but instead of the blue or red on silvers that I already have, this one is black on gold.

These were newer caps, "8 for a dollar".  Top row is a Molson, followed by a Shiner Bock, a Lakefront Brewery out of Milwaukee (apparently they name their brew after neighborhoods in the city), then the first of three Leinkugels, this one a Red Lager.
Second row has the leinie's Summer Wheat and Fireside Nut Brown.  Then comes a New Holland, from Holland, MI, and a Coors.

And if that wasn't good enough, let's play "before and after".  Here's that Old Crown Bock bottle I got back during Three Rivers before...

...and here's the "new, improved" version...

That's right, I got a label for it!!  Not exactly the same, but I put it on the back side for display purposes.

This show brought back a ton of memories.  Gluek Stites, Hop'n Gators, Old Toppers, wow... and Openers! I could kick myself square in the butt for not keeping all those old openers I used to have.  I dearly wanted to bring some signage home, but the cheapest I found was $35, well past my "allowance".  I hope all those old boys getting loud and boisterous at the beer-tasting got home okay.  I heard somebody ask the leader of the "pack" whether he was driving, and he answered "Only backwards."

An update...

First off, I forgot to mention that in doing research on the last post, I discovered that the cap I described as a "pain in the butt to find Molson Dry"  was actually something else.  It was a Wit beer, from an outfit from NY called Spring Street.  Spring Street was a jumping point for founder Andrew Klein; he launched an IPO that he then morphed into a means of trading over the internet.  This became Wit Capital; and as near as I can figure, the brewery was left to fall apart while he concentrated on turning WC into a major Wall Street player.  A NYTimes article (titled "nitWit") cast aspersions on the relative success of this, and eventually the whole mess was folded into Goldman-Sachs in 2004.  I wasn't able to figure out just when in all this that Spring Street assumed room temperature, but I kinda doubt it made it out of the 1990's.

Second, our mystery cap with the ship has been identified with the help of Mike's beer store on eBay.  He confirms from the brewer that this is a recently released cap by the Wachusett brewery.

Third, I forgot to mention last time in my discussion of Evansville brewing that according to news sources, one of its last acts in life was to raid the employees 401ks to keep afloat.  Real princes, that lot.  Perhaps brewing so many different brands that Noah couldn't have kept track of 'em wasn't such a good idea.  Pittsburgh Brewing ended up taking over the Sterling, Wiedemann, Falls City, Drummond Bros., Eagle Mallt Liquor, Gerst, Drewrys, and John Gilbert's Riverboat brands the next year (1998).  After reorganizing in 2007, they still brew the Wiedemanns, Drewrys, and Drummond Bros.

Wow! A bunch from E-bay... and a new home

Won a lot of forty caps (mainly defunct micros) from eBay.  Spent most of the afternoon trying to track the little buggers down!  But, I was 98% successful, so here we go!

A TON of these are from Evansville Brewing, who brewed a lot of rare and wild things for others before going belly-up.  On this page, they include top row #1, a Gerst (originally from Gerst Haus in Nashville, TN);  right next door, that is Joe's Freakin' Micro; then the next three, two are Blue Ridge beer ( originally from Rainbow Ridge in Marietta GA), the second one having a FL tax stamp, and the third is a Red Ridge Ale; second in row 2 is a John Gilbert's Riverboat Brand; next to him a Bicycle malt beverage ("We brewed the beer flavor out and brewed the fruit flavor in", somewhat like today's Smirnoff Ice flavors);  At the front of the bottom row, that's a Bad Frog Malt Liquor flipping you off ( a trait for which it was banned in Pennsylvania);  and third and fourth in that row are a Jackaroo Micro Light and a Gringo Light.  The remainders of the picture? Leading off row 2 is an Eddie McStiffs, a bar/pub in Moab, UT.  Fourth in the row is a Teton Ale from Grand Teton brew/pub in Wyoming.  The text says, at the top, A Taste Of The Tetons, and at the bottom, Jackson Hole's Original.  Next is a Burger, which I have others, including from it's first life as a major brewer out of Cincinnati; this is from it's current life as a craft brewer.  That rogue in the middle of the rows is a River City, which is a micro out of Wichita, KS.  Bottom row #2 was a "Certified" Sauna Beer made by Bosch from 1968-1973,  based on a traditional Finnish recipe "for when you get out of the sauna".  After that, the brand was bought by Leinkugel, who sold only the Bosch brand until 1986.  The last one in the picture is a 10th anniversary version of Winterfest, a seasonal by Coors.  10th Anniversary puts it at 2005.

This is Scrappy, who had to have his picture took when I turned on the camera.

Evansvillians (or Evansvillains, for what they put me through looking for them) are but 2 in this picture- the last two.  The sunny fellow is a Hey Mon Lite, and the other is a Mississippi, a twist off to go with a plain one I have elsewhere in our journey.  Top row consists of, first, an Iron City.  I have a comic book where a omnipowerful character goes to some alien boardwalk and orders a beer.  The bartender says, "Rigellian, Skrull, or..."  and OC says, "Earth beer, you dummy!"  The bartender says nervously, "Of course, sir, Iron City, sir, the BEST!"  Next is a Rhino Chasers beer.  This brand was aoriginally brewed by William and Scott brewery in Huntington Beach CA, where a rhino chaser was a surfer hunting a "rhino" (big wave) with his "gun" (Board).  That concern folded, but a craft brewer in northern Virginia bought the TM and brewed it once again in tribute.  This one also has a FL tax stamp.  Then comes a Slim Chance Light Ale, one of two caps in the lot brewed by Red Hook - the other being the Black Hook porter at the front of the bottom row.  Then comes a Red Bell, from a defunct Philly brewery.  The next one posed the biggest problem to find, because the only way to find it was to figure out what the near microscopic writing  on top of the word "country" in "Country Spring" was.  I finally found one I could blow up on a Russian collector's site- it said, "MountainMeadows".  The Mountain Meadow Country Spring company was a San Diego concern that has, as Rush Limbaugh says, assumed room temperature.
The next one, second in the bottom row, is not actually a beer brand.  Morgan's is an Australia-based outfit who sells beer-making kits for home brewers.  Then comes an Aviator Ales, which was out of Woodinville, WA.

The last of the lot Had the remaining 2 Evansvillains, an Alabama, and it's twist-off twin.  Then comes a WBC, which stands for Wyoming Brewing Co., out of Hazelton, WY.  The next is a Widmer Brothers (who I discussed in a much earlier post), this one being an exact replica save for the much-larger text around the edge band.  Then comes a pair from Wachusett Brewing, also talked about in that much earlier post.  The first says "only available in Wachusett Brewery, Westminster, Massachusetts", while the second says "since 1994" on the top.  The SSB is from State Street Brewing, another cap from that post.  And there at the end... well, I have no clue what it is, after hours of searching it out.  I'm guessing it could be another Evansvillain, but I have no idea.

Later in the day, my plan to eliminate having binders lying about the living room came to fruition, when a nice man from Rome City delivered this:

Yes, sir, an Old Crown beer case!  In fact this was no normal beer case...

The stamp says "DRINKING CUPS", and what it held at one time were rounded down cans that could be used for... drinking cups!  What it holds now are the 550 members of the Martin cap collection.  And that nice man, having learned what I had intended for it, also brought along another surprise...

A Centlivre Old Crown, cork backed, from the early 40's.  Altogether, an exhausting but A-1 day for the collection!



Hey, I'm back...

...and I bring the long delayed first round of caps from Binder #3.  But first, I have some that I found in a cup in a trash bag in a dumpster a couple of weeks ago (no, I don't root thru everyone's trash, just the ones known for having beer caps).

Obviously the first one is a Guinness. The second is a Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale form Alltech Lexington Brewing.

The sunshiny guy is a Oberon Wheat Ale from our friends at the Bells brewery up in Michigan.  His friend is the generic cap from Founders Brewing, another Michigan outfit rated the second best brewery in the nation by Ratebeer.com.

Okay, so on to pages 15 and 16.

And guess what? We start here with a Guinness, as well.  Following him is a Corona Light; then a Red Stripe, which comes to us from Jamaica man; then a Cerveza Sol; and Harp, which is a Guinness brand based in Ireland.  Second row starts with a Hampton Ale, then a Sam Adams; and MGD light 64; a Bud with the shadow design in the background; and a Genesee generic twist off.

Here we see I inherited some of my mom's ability at cutting things out of a picture.  She really was a master at the one eye/ear/nostril look.  Anyhow, the 2 you cannot see are a Labatts Blue and a Regal Pale cork backed cap.  In the first row, we also have a pair of Michjelob Lights and a Mich Ultra. Then comes another cork, a Muskegon pilsener.  She's from 1937 and Muskegon brewing, who capped it, was eventually bought out by Goebel.  The Regal Pale is a 1948 from the Regal Amber brewery which was out of San Francisco until about 1961. Next is a generic premium, then another cork, a Gunther 2 cent VA tax paid from the mid 50's; a Burgie from the same era that comes from the San Francisco brewing co. from... well, you know.  Wrapping the row is a Rheingold, a 50's era cap from a Brooklyn NY brewer.

Page 16 begins with a Ukrainian beer called Zibert.  Then a Busch Light,then a Dogfish Head, then a Widener Brothers out of Portland, OR; and the end of row, a bit of a rhymes-with-witch to figure out when I first got it, is a Magic Hat, out of a Burlington, VT, outfit.  Row two leads off with a Stone Brewing, a "big Character brewer " (known for its Arrogant Bastard brew) out of Escondido, CA.  Following him is an offering from New Belgium Brewing from Fort Collins, CO.  Next is a Lindener Spezial, out of Hannover, Germany; a New Glaurus out of Wisconsin; and a Flying Dog from Maryland.

Our last section for the night includes a Bass (for which we'll have a couple of slight variations later); Yet another color for Sierra Nevada; a Saranac Amber; Leinkugel's Classic Amber; and another variation of the JW Dundee's Honey Brown.  The bottom row has a Sam Adams seasonal; a plain-jane Bud twist-off; a Miller tall twist; another pain-in-the butt to track down Molson Dry; and a beloved cork PBR.  That is it for this episode, tune in hopefully sooner for our next installment.