New years day

First off, the best harbinger of the new year came Friday from our friend Theng:

A lovely homemade Christmas card from Malaysia!  Thanks and God Bless you!!

Then we move on to the NYE party.

People were losing their clothes pretty early at this thing.

Laurie got a high score on a Wii game that I could see about as well as the camera...

But the reason why the story is here was that I opted to do another beer tasting, the results of which I shall now reveal.

First at the top- and last one I drank- is a Red Stripe Light.  This Jamaican Lager was actually pretty good- however, it was made better by how bad the one before it was.  Next to him is a Leinkugel's Honey Weiss, which was a lot better than the other wheat beers I've had.  (Sure beat the Fireside Nut Brown I had at Christmas!  Who wants coffee in their beer?) 

The solid gold is a Leffe, a Belgium Abbey beer.  Leffe Blonde is what we tried.  you can look here for what they have to say about it.  This was to us, like a bad attempt at wine (which when you consider that someone brought a chocolate wine that tasted more like chocolate Ny-Quil, is saying a lot).  Tasted like it had a clove soaking in it.

To its left is a New Belgium Ranger IPA, an India Pale ale.  For us, one picture is worth a thousand words:

As Jack's face can tell you, this had to be the single most vile thing of any sort that ever passed my lips. EVER.  Both the bottle and the sip's worth in Jack's cup swiftly found the kitchen sink.

The final one there was a Landshark Lager, a benign little  Bud Light-ish lager that offended no one.

This here is an unopenned Boulevard Pale Ale. Boulevard is the 10th-largest craft brewer in the nation.  However, since our experience with the Ranger IPA was so, er, bitter, this bottle will go into the "Bottle Wing " of the collection unopened for the forseeable future.

Combine these with various sips of slushie concoctions, a swig of that horrifying Chocolate Ny-Quil (sorry, Joyce), and more-than-neccessary palate cleansings with Rum and pepsi, and you could say that a good time was had by all:

However that does leave us with the nasty experience of before...

...and after...

Mommy, I promise I'll get the caps catalogued tomorrow... I don't feel so good right now...

Bounty from up north, eh?

Yeah, I got in a set of 50 caps from Canada, and forty-five went into the collection.

The first two in line are the two I just got from MsNkRey a week or so ago.  A very pretty blue Guinness and a Victory brewing. Victory was founded in 1996 and started in an old Pepperidge Farms bakery in Downingtown, PA. Then come the Canadian caps, starting with a pair from Alexander Keiths, one of the oldest breweries in North America, from Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Then two each of Alpine lager and Alpine Light, which are Moosehead brands.  Then, from the people who brought you Black label, a Carling (which is now part of the Molson empire).  After that are three variations on Coors Light that I didn't have.  Then the string of Labatts begins, with a pair of John Labatt's (either the founder or his son- I couldn't find out which- both long since gone to that great recycling center in the sky.  I got several variations on Labatts Blue in the bunch; the first one ends this photo.

The next one has this neat "fade to silver" strip down the diagonal.  The second is another variation; the third is in French.  Finally, one simply titled "Labatt".  Next comes one from Lakeport brewing, out of Hamilton Ontario.  They were founded in 1992 and soon foundered, going through bankruptcy and then rebounding on the concept of selling "24 cans for $24" (the lowest price allowed in Canada), and the business improved to the point that Labatt made a $200 million plus offer that they accepted.

Row two starts with a Laker, from Brick Brewing in Waterloo, Ont.  Brick was the first craft brewer in Canada. Then comes the Molson parade.  That first one has a lion crest and the year 1867 on it- Canadas independence year, as well as the name of their new light beer. The gold one celebrates 227 years in the business (1786-2007).  Next is that Molson 67, which like Bud 55 is the calorie count per beer.  And we finish out the Molson with two gorgeous Export caps.  Now Export is an ale, and I said to myself, I thought Golden was their ale.  Apparently they at some point changed it to a lager instead of brewing two ales.

Next begins the march of the Mooseheads.  Before I begin, I've just gotta tuck in this wiki story about Moosehead.

In August 2004 a truck driver transporting 60,000 cans of Moosehead beer to Mexico for a Mexican supermarket chain disappeared with the beer, leaving the nearly empty transport truck abandoned in a parking lot located in Grand Falls, New Brunswick. Easily identified by the Spanish writing on the labels (which is not common in the English/French speaking country of Canada) the beer was slowly tracked.
The first signs of the missing beer showed up in Fredericton, New Brunswick, with two empty cans; another report of two cans were reported later in northern New Brunswick. Police working on a tip eventually found the truck driver in Ontario; earlier in the same week, police discovered nearly 8,000 cans of the stolen suds in a trailer that went off the road near Woodstock, New Brunswick.
With most of the beer recovered and the driver in custody, the police in the New Brunswick area began to look in wooded areas for the remaining beer. Knowing the area in which the police were looking, many civilians took up the search as well. Because of the media attention on the story almost all of the beer was quickly found by civilians and police, and most of it was returned to Moosehead Breweries.
The final piece of the story occurred in October 2004 when 200 cans of the stolen beer were found at a marijuana growing operation in the forest near Doaktown, New Brunswick about 100 kilometres northeast of Fredericton.^[4] "Six of the cans were discovered with bite marks in them indicating a bear had, at one point, been into the beer," the RCMP said in a news release. The release said there was no sign of either the animal or the people who had stashed the beer.

Gotta love drunken bears, eh?  Anyway, we start with a standard Moosehead, differing from my other one by banner placement.  Then comes one celebrating a gold medal at the 2000 World Beer Cup.  Next is a premium Dry; and then we go onto our next picture.

Three straight Moose Lights, the second an obvious crib of Coors Light, and the third with that magical year 1867 on the bottom.  We wrap up the Mooseheads with a pair of Pale Ales.  That OV leading off the bottom row is actually an Old Vienna.  OV started- if you can believe this, from City Brewing (later Koch Brewing) out of Wapakoneta, Ohio!  Koch was bought out by Carling-O'Keefe, which in turn was bought out by Molson.  Next up is a Rickard's Red, which is an amber ale brewed by Molson.  Then a Sleeman's Honey Brown.  Sleeman's also is a fascinating story.  One of the oldest brewers in Canada, it was shut down in 1933 for bootlegging beer into Detroit. In 1988 the founder's great-great grandson re-started the business, and by swallowing up other craft breweries, became the #3 brewer in Canada behind Molson and Labatts.  They were themselves purchased in 2006 by, of all people Japan's Sapporo brewing.  They also brew all the little niche brands that Pabst serves for Canada.

That second to last fellow is from Upper Canada brewing out of Guelf, which was one of those aforementioned conquests of Sleeman's. and thus also owned now by Sapporo.  Rounding out that board is an escapee from the Moosehead row- a Moosehead Dry Ice.

Finishing off the Canadian end of today's story, we start with a Cold Filtered Light, another Moosehead brand.  Then comes a St. Ambroise, from  La Brasserie McAuslan, a craft brewer started in 1989 and expanded when Moosehead became a part owner in 2002.  Next comes a Schooner from the Oland brewery.  This family is relatives of the Olands who own and operate Moosehead.  Then we have a more familiar lot, the Budweiser family.  First up is a Bud Select 55 (which I mentioned earlier).  The next cap says Beer in English and French under the bow tie.  The next two are variants of ones I have;  the B cap is a brighter color than the one I have, and the bow tie is unique in the blue "eagle-A" at the top, no "twist off" logo, and blue outline on Budweiser.  The Bud Light also has no twist off logo on the side, and is slightly different in size and alignment.

But our story doesn't end here, because I also got in some old cork tax caps.

The firsat one on top is a Silver Fox De Luxe, brewed by Peter Fox in Marion Indiana until they moved to Chicago and closed in 1955.  They have been re-openned as a Chicago craft outfit in 2008.  This cap dates from 1948-51.  Next is a Richbrau VA tax cap, which was made by Home brewing until 1969.  It was reborn as a craft brewery, but died thanks to the Obamaconomy of 2010.  Several of these caps are generic, having been issued to various manufacturers to sell in Virginia in the 1940-48 period.  The Pennsylvania generic next, though, ran from 1945-65.  Next to it is a Budweiser VA cap.  Second picture has a Schlitz; next to it, a generic "Commonwealth of Virginia" that dates 1938-40.
Below them we have a Pabst; and the yellow "Commonwealth" cap also dates from the 1940-48 group.

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.

Boom II

I decided if it works with Shiner, will it work with someone else?  So I wrote Pabst, and here is what came of it:

We add a Schlitz; a pair each of Lone Stars (top #3 and bottom #2) and Lone Star Lights (#2 top and #3 bottom); a PBR I didn't have; a Rainier (the big "R", duh); and one that I couldn't identify (top #4) on Pabst's site or among there "portfolio of beers; I finally tracked it down at a collector from the Czech Republic's site- he IDs it as a Blitz-Weinhard.  This used to be a flagship brand of Henry Weinhards of Portland OR, but these days the original business makes just sodas.  However, Miller brews some Henry Weinhard brands (though the Blitz-Weinhard name has apparently lapsed) under contract for Pabst.  At this point, I can neither confirm or deny that this is a Henry Weinhards, so it remains a B-W until I learn otherwise.  In any event, it gave me a chance to ask Miller-Coors for caps too.

Also this weekend, KC and I tried a little beer tasting event.  We didn't get too far since he tasted a few too many beers the night before.  However, I have 2 caps in the binder from the attempt, and four more in the fridge awaiting our next sing at it.

First man up is a Goose Island 312 "Urban Wheat Ale" .  What makes it urban I have no idea, but I can tell you that wheat beer has (to me) an odd dry taste.  Goose Island is a Chicago micro in the process of selling out to Anheuser-Busch.  Next to him is a second Brooklyn beer (which you saw in book 1, board 7), this one Green background and gold "B" rather than the opposite.  Next up is my 4th Sierra Nevada, found in the Kroger parking lot on our way to get the six beer-tasting beers. Next to it is a Newcastle Limited Edition that was among three that KC found on a walk (one of which, sadly, turned out to be a hard cider). I wasn't able to determine much more as the Newcastle Brown Ale website is both confusing and annoying.  The other one KC found was a Breckenridge Breweries, who brew a variety of beers from Denver and environs, all apparently wearing the same cap.

Here are the yet-to-be-drank gang.  Top left is another variation on Leinkugel's Oktoberfest; Next to him is an Indiana Amber from the Oaken Barrel brewery, a brew-pub in Greenwood, IN.  Bottom left is my third Moosehead lager, and next to him is a Molson Canadian.  So today netted a total of 17 caps, and by the time they all join the book we'll be up to 510!