The Leinkugel's Summer Sampler

is what my boy brought over today.  It has three bottles each of four Leinie's brews- Summer Shandy, Honey Weiss, Canoe Paddler, and Berry Weiss.  Of these, I did need the Berry and the Canoe paddler- which gives me 13 caps of ten different Leinkugel brews.

Canoe Paddler was our first try.  A Kolsch beer- from Cologne, Gremany, warm fermented and then lagered- it was light and nice.  Then we did the Honey Weiss- while we didn't taste the honey it still was pretty good.  A bit heavier than the CP, with a hint of bitter aftertaste.  Now, from here, I was thinking, this might get really gross, because flavored beer is not my métier.

The Berry was next- and where the CP smelled like beer, and the HW didn't really have a smell, this stuff smelled like cough syrup to me.  Packed with loganberry, blackberry, and elderberry, it tasted to me just like the legendary MD 20/20, "mad dog" wine.  I really thought I wouldn't like it, but it wasn't bad.  KC actually liked it best.

Then came the one he was waiting on, the Summer Shandy.  A shandy is a beer mixed with a soft drink or juice, and this one has been heavily advertised around here, thus KC was anxious to try it.  First sniff had "lemon-fresh Joy" written all over it.  The taste though seemed about a 70-30 lemonade to beer mix.  It wasn't bad, though not what I'd mix with beer.  KC was not impressed, but Scrappy liked it.

Unfortunately, the lay-off has prevented me from getting a new binder, and Berry Weiss took the last spot in Book #4.  Canoe Paddler leads off book #5, which for now is a page from an old photo album without a home.

Okay, I've a Summer Shandy to finish off- eventually- so that's the story from the Summer Sampler taste test.

And now, Stephen T. McCarthy

One of my most thoughtful and thought-provoking blog friends, he stars over at Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends  (No, this is not a Frank Burns tribute site), and along with something else I will mention after I have enjoyed it, he has sent me four new caps....

In apologia for taking the picture upside down, I'll start with the Odell on the upper right.  It comes from their IPA.  Odell is a craft brew founded in a converted 1915 grain elevator near Ft. Collins, CO.  Diagonal down from it, we have an entry from Deschutes Brewery from Bend, OR.  (The A's used to have a rookie-league team in Bend...)  Deschutes, as of 2010, is only behind Boston (Sam Adams), Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, and Spoetzel  on the most sales list.  The cap came from Mirror Pond Pale Ale, their "base camp" brew.

The other two ( and the font of a long comment discussion you can read here)  Belong to Lagunitas Brewery of a town of the same name in California.  The green fellow is their "Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale", a kind of a wheat beer/IPA combo- which, given my last experience with an IPA, might be the only way I could take one.  (Raised on lager, sorry!)  The other is their "Sucks", which was born as a substitute for their Brown Shugga ale when a bottleneck between desire and capacity forced them to forego the Brown Shugga one season.   The Brown Shugga was born of a similar story; apparently this brown sugar ale was itself a failed attempt at making their Olde GnarleyWine Ale that ended up good.

Again, I want to thank STM for the caps (and the other thing...), and also for sending the descriptions along so that I could tell you the story of each without spending two hours hunting them on the interwebs!  (Of course, thanks to a psychotic PlayMemories program, it took two hours to download the picture- and that's why you get the Odell upside down!)

Unexpected riches

I started out today thinking I had but two caps to show you.

The first is my latest "eBaby", a King's Tavern Ale.  This cork cap is of 1934-9 vintage and brewed by what was then the Flint Hill Brewery, which eventually took on the name of it's home town, Frankenmuth Michigan.  The Frankenmuth brewery was bought in 1989 by a German investor, but it burned down the next year.  He sold it to another group who rebuilt as a craft brewpub, and by 1993 it was up and running again.  Then in 1996 it was the target of an F3 tornado.  Again it rose from the ashes only to be shut down when a bank loan was turned down.  Still another group re-established it in 2009.

The other is what my son has been drinking, Redd's Apple Cider Ale by Miller.  It has "natural apple flavor"- IOW, no apples were harmed in the brewing.

As I said, I thought that was it.  But Juli over at Surviving Boys said she'd send me some caps she'd acquired, and I checked the mailbox to see if they arrived.  Hoo Boy, did they!

SEVENTEEN caps, all new to the collection!  On the top row that you see, these caps are ones I have, but not this design or style.  The first is Brooklyn Pennant Ale.  Then comes a Saranac with a nifty New York State silhouette in the middle.  That Troeg's is just a couple shades different on the maize color than the one I have.  The next one is from Bluepoint out of Long Island.  After that is a Bud Select that I didn't have, and ending the top row is a Wauchusett which is like one I had, but the reverse color scheme.

The next row are all new to me.  Rogue Ale- "for the Rogue in all of us"- is out of Oregon, and (hey Deadliest Catch fans) one of their beers is Captain Sig's Northwestern Ale.  That dude has his name on everything!

Beer, coffee, salmon patties- even popcorn fish!

Anyway, that next white cap is an O.K. beer from Okocim brewery near Warsaw, Poland.  This is from Carlsburg Polska, the Polish division of Carlsburg brewing, and is their premium lager.  Then comes an Affligem Blonde, a pale ale brewed on license to the Affligem abbey in Belgium and distributed by Heineken.  If you look all the way to the end of line two, you'll see another foreign beer distributed by Heineken.  It is a style called La Rossa, a doppelbock (double bock) brewed by Italy's Birra Moretti out of Udine.

After the Affligem is a pair from Ommegang, a company out of Cooperstown, NY that brews Belgian style ales.  They were formed originally from a US beer importer and three Belgian breweries which have since been absorbed, plus another Belgian brewer, Duvel Moortgat, who bought out the whole thing in 2003.

Finally in row two, and additionally in row three are a pair from Abita, an outfit out of New Orleans.  The brown one is a Munich lager they call Amber; the purple is called Purple Haze, and has raspberry flavor.  Next to the Purple Haze is one from Heavy Seas from Clipper City brewery.  It's founder, Baltimore's Hugh Sisson, was behind making craft beer legal in Maryland, and they brew 24 different styles in 3 "fleets".

Those last two were a pain in the butt as they had no ID on them.  The first is a Scottish Ale brewed in Belgium (I didn't make that up) by the Scotch de Silly brewery (didn't make that up either; Silly is a town of about 8,000 in central Belgium where the brewery is).  The other turned out to be my second Steinlager ( and first that didn't say "Steinlager" on it).

My best addition says we're at 745 caps now!  Not as big as many, but if you consider I don't count caps that have different things on the bottom (like playing cards or rebuses) as different and stay away from "non-beer" caps as much as possible, it ain't bad!

And now... a glimmer of hope...

Long ages ago, when I was assisting my can-collecting nephew, we went to an old dumping ground my dad called "Sowtown".  A little research years later told me it was the former site of a platted town called Centerville that died as quickly as it was born when the railroad decided to put its depot a few miles southeast in Monroeville.  Or perhaps, as my memories are no longer clear, it might have been a dump we discovered in the wild area of Pokagon State Park.  In either event we found a can that was almost unidentifiable.  It was fragile and about 95% rust.  But we had discovered the "magic" of boric acid solution, and took it back to see what could be salvaged.  What we saw- barely- once looked like what you see above.  Its value was negligible- its condition on the lower end of the "poor" category- but I fell in love nonetheless.  I always did have a thing for rusty, "antiquey" cans.

I was hooked then and there on Drewrys, though it would be years later when I could drink it legally.  Soon after I found a cork "big D" cap in my dad's 1937 Chevy upholstery.  But you remember the 1990's- Budweiser marched over everything and everyone like the Wehrmacht over Eastern Europe, and Drewrys became another on the long list of "Hey, remember that beer" brands.

So the other day, I hit something I couldn't believe on eBay, and today it came home.

That's right, a little Drewrys Draft "shortie", formerly the holder of 12 ounces of South Bend's most refreshing beer.  And since I have another cap coming, I was going to wait and post this sometime this weekend.  But then I did a little research, and was knocked over by this bit of news:

Though Drewrys labeled beer has been non-existent  since it was last produced in 1997, Drewrys was purchased in 2011 by Chicago-based entrepreneur, Francis Manzo. The city of South Bend will be the site of launch for the rebranded beer as this was the location for Drewrys largest operation. Production is slated for 2013.

WHAAAAT?

I quickly found the website for the reborn company, and learned that it's TRUE!!!  Sometime this year- and I signed up for the newsletter and liked them on Facebook so that I can get some as soon as possible.  To be sure, it will NOT be the original recipe- diligent searching came up with a verdict of "recipe lost", which we will blame on Pittsburgh Brewing, since they had the rights last (though they never brewed it).  However, they have looked at notes and consulted experts to come up with as close as they can to the original flavor.  Also, they hope to be able to produce it in South Bend as soon as feasible.  It seems that for now it will be brewed in the last location it was brewed- Evansville- and will be mainly marketed to the South Bend area.

South Bend is just under 2 hours away.  I can't wait!

And now- tall twists!

I had to jump on this when I saw it on eBay- almost nobody seems to collect the tall twist-off caps but me!

I was amazed I didn't have the Bud, but mine had "twist off" written on the top. The two red ones are Kruegers.  Krueger was a NJ beer that in January of 1935 became the first beer sold in cans.  The brewery sold out to Narragansett in 1961, which was soon later gobbled up by Falstaff.  I had an Olympia TT, but mine was gold-ringed.  The Rainier is the first I've ever seen touting a "recyclable bottle".  Bottom left is a generic with the Georgia state seal on the bottom.  Yes, that PBR from West Virginia is green; Never saw THAT Genesee logo before; the last two are a Schmidt's and a Lucky.

This wasn't the whole haul- there was a Coke cap (WTH) and a double of the generic.  Also a Miller High Life that improved upon the one I had (which has gone into retirement in the bottom of the Old Crown box).  Oh, and this one:

Despite two days of extensive searching and contacting the seller, I still have no idea what this is.  Anyone with an idea will win the coveted Trophee du Beagle!

Because it pays to pay attention...

I mentioned on the main blog that Mynx had sent me her lovely artwork, but I had got so excited that I forgot she said she was sending caps with it!  So I dug out the package, and sure enough, here were these two beauties:

All the way from Oz, here are two from Coopers.  Not only are they noted for their high quality beers, but are also the world's largest manufacturer of home-brew equipment.  As you can see, the brewery is celebrating their 150th anniversary.  If the pic I saw on Wikipedia are accurate, I believe the red one is a Sparkling Ale (which is one of those cloudy, stir-it-first English styles) and the green one is their original pale ale.   Many thanks again!

Here's the other bunch!

I told you I had another lot coming in, and this was a fun bunch to look at and research.

Let's start clockwise from the black horse, which would be a Black Horse Ale.  Originally a Carling product, it was contracted to the Fred Koch brewery in 1961.  Like all small breweries, Koch was shuffled around and ended up with Genesee by 1984.  Genesee actually won a gold at the great American Beer Festival in 1988 with BHA, but by the early nineties had shuttered most of the Koch brands, including BHA.  Next is an Old German, followed by a National Bohemian.  Nat Boh is still around as a Pabst brand, but the interesting thing is where it ties into the Altes on the bottom.  Altes was first brewed by Tivoli from 1933.  Tivoli changed names to Altes Brewing in '48, and in 1954 Nat Boh bought them out.  Nat Boh merged with Carling in 1973, and were both part of the G. Heilman empire from 1979-96.  I'm not sure when the Altes brand was shut down in all this, but I believe the brewery itself was shut down in '91 so we'll go with that.

Next is a Van Merritt, which was easily the hardest to get a straight story about.  As far as I can confirm, it was Brewed by the Burlington Brewing Co. of Burlington, WI from 1933 to 1953, when it changed names to reflect its main beer.  Two years later, the Van Merritts sold out, and here's where the story gets iffy.  I have seen it connected to the Wisconsin Brewing company, to Centlivre/Old Crown, to Monarch Brewing in Joliet, to Joseph Huber, and even saw an article saying the company's assets had been sold to a New York cosmetic firm.  In any event, I saw no evidence that it was brewed after the brewery closed in 1957, but the cap is plastic lined and not cork, so I can't really be sure.

Then comes a Storz, one of the old-time brews founded by Gottlieb Storz in Omaha in 1876.  Grain Belt bought them out in 1966, and shut down the plant in 1972.  Next is another Blitz-Weinhard, which was another one of those brands that got bounced around and finally got shut down when Strohs sold the brewery in its death throes to Miller, who shuttered the plant.  Then a Schmidt, the aforementioned Altes, and a Schlitz Malt Liquor.

This bunch was neat for me.  So many of these brands- Altes, Nat Boh, Van Merritt, Storz, even the Bosch from last post- they were some of those neat, uncommon brands that were within reach of the average can collector when we all got started in the seventies.  Heartbreaking to see all the brands- and the jobs they supported- gone by the wayside, many of them through the 1990's stupidity of Strohs and G. Heilman.  I really salute Pabst and the various startups that kept so many of these brands alive.

I think I may have one more coming, I'll let you know.