Three Rivers Festival find!!

Hop on over to Tilting At Windmills and see the new addition to the collection - aprize that will NEVER go into the binder books!  Why? well, go see!

Boards 5-6-7

Time to get some more boards put up here.  No new acquisitions here lately- with work the way it is, I probably won't be e-baying for a while.  We are up to board #5.



First up is an almost flat Michelob Light from Florida, obviously a Florida trip prize.  Next to him is a split-color Mich Light ez-twist that looks like it might have been a home drank bottle. Then comes the standard Mich ez-twist, along with a Florida model of the same thing.  Finishing out row 1 is a Miller High Life ez-twist from Florida. On the bottom we see one of the green Miller caps which I think may have indicated 3.2 beer (weaker alcohol for Sunday sales).  Next is a trio of Canada's Molson beers- first is a Molson Golden Ale, then the blue clipper ship that indicated Molson Export, and finally the red and blue of Molson Canadian.  Then we have a rather rough around the sides Oktoberfest, from Canada.  I remember the huge 132-oz cans you could get of this stuff, the biggest can you could collect back then.

Next is an Old Chicago twist off, a Zulu cap.  Then come my pride and joy Old Crowns- First my cork liner Old Crown red c.1950, then a white version plastic liner, and finally an Old Crown Ale.  The red and green are '37 Chevy finds, the somewhat worse for wear white one was a more modern 1980s cap after Peter Hand bought the brand.  Wrapping up that row is an Old German 2¢ Virginia cork that was a dump find; below that we have three Old Milwaukees out of four.  The first is a Florida which I think was also a dump find , rather than a trip prize. After him is the surrounded Heileman's Old Style, a Zulu cap.  Of the remaining Old Mils, the next one is a Florida and the last is a regular, and I believe both of them I found on the Florida trip. The difference in the two Floridas is that the first has it printed right under the crest, the other is just above the ring.  The last of board 5 is an Olympia tall aluminum twist that may also have came on the trip.  It would've been neat if I'd have kept track of the when and wheres, but it hardly seemed important back then.

That brings us to Board #6, and it leads with another "Oly", this one the regular size "sof-twist cap"  Back then, Olympia advertised with a character that came in the bar and shouted "Olys for the house!"  Our High School a.d. back then was a well-known alcoholic, and was often greeted in large groups of students by an anonymous "Olys for the house!" shout.  Never did quite figure out where it was coming from though.  Usually from someone in our little group.  Next is an Olympia Gold, which was their original light beer.  This was a "nephew" acquisition. The next two were road finds- a standard Oly, and an Oly Light (you can see "light" in cursive above the "Olympia").  Then begins the great collection of my father's brand, Pabst Blue Ribbon.  At the end of row 1 is a tall twist; The next two were the standard Pabst caps of the day. #1 is a dark blue on flat silver, a zapatA cap, the other a Crown Cork Co. that was a lighter blue on polished silver.  Interrupting the group was a Renner Old Oxford Ale, that was pilfered by my nephew from the can show.  I suspect this was a re-creation, as the Goerge Renner Brewing Co., the oldest brewery in Ohio, shut down in December of 1952 and nobody picked up the brand's production.  After him are the oddballs of the Pabst family- a blue-background that has the outline of the ribbon, and a red one that does not.  The red one was from the Chevy; I think I found the blue one in our basement.

Next we have a red twist off, and I think that was a road cap.  Then come three blue  twist offs: the first a GEORGIA from the trip; then the standard with the light blue; then a Georgia state seal (which is almost obliterated by a rust spot).   Next comes Pabst's foray into light beer, the Pabst Extra Light.  Second row is another standard twist, this one the dark blue and flat silver version.  Exiting the PBR family, we then have a Pearl with the double "twist-turn" and stamped FLORIDA.  Pearl was a brewery out of Texas, I think San Antonio.  Then the final two of the four "pilferings" from the can show, a pair of generic Bock  caps from Armstrong.  Out of the four, only the Renner held up, the others gained "age spots" almost immediately.  Finally for board six is an Old Chicago with the signature "PHBCO" for Peter Hand, who I suspect had a bit of an ego.

Board seven has some of the caps I got in my first great e-bay purchase- a lot of 100 caps, mostly microbreweries, of which I got 78 usable caps from.  The first is a "Rich and flavorful O'Doul's Amber." I think this is a Miller non alcoholic brand.  Next comes the first of many Rolling Rocks.  I remember another trip with my brother's family, this time to Fawn Forest campground near Angola.  On a walk there I found the first Rolling Rock can we'd ever seen, before it had ventured far from its Latrobe, PA base.  It took me five minutes to even determine if it was indeed beer, it seemed. Next is a Bud Light, standard fare; that HB is a Hofbrauhaus out of Munich, and next to him a Samuel Adams.  Second row is a Sam Adams "brewmaster's collection", followed by a Bud Light "pry off".  The following Miller Lite reads "4-time world beer cup gold award winner" on the top, with the years below.  Then comes a "Millenium " Budweiser, released to celebrate the millenium in 1999.  The green cap with the lighthouse comes to us from the Blue Point micro from Patchogue, Long Island.

Wrapping up this especially-long trip, we lead off the second half of board seven with a Leinkugels "Leinie's Oktoberfest".  Next is from the Brooklyn brewing micro, folled by one of my two Amstel Lights.  The red "h" is the Harpoon micro out of Boston, and Windsor, VT.  The next cap, with the Eagle and "America's Oldest Brewery" logo is a Yuengling, which was established in 1829.  We used to get uengling cans; but in 1996 they pulled back into their home area to reconsolidate to better meet demand.  They then slowly expanded, and bought the old Strohs plant in Tampa to complete their jouney back into the wider world.

Bottom row starts out with a Guinness draught, then a Clipper City micro from Baltimore.  Then comes a Bells which seems to be a tavern beer from England, but I could be wrong here.  Next comes the Smuttynose brewery of Portsmouth, NH, which features a seal in front of a mountain, with the legend, "Make Mine A Smutty!" (which was quite an eye opener for someone who hadn't heard of them before).  And we finish off this post with a Newcastle Brown Ale, which is brewed by Heineken in the UK.

Wow, three boards done! take your time, savor the flavor, and I'll send ya some more later.

Board #4

 Now, before I begin, let me tell you that it ain't easy to take these pictures when you live with a dog that associates "camera" with "walk":

Okay, now that we've gotten the ham outta the way, let's move onto the denizens of board # 4.

We start out with the run of the mill Hamms, a Zulu child. Next to him, we have a Hamms from the Florida trip, a smooshed twist-off.  Next up is a Huber, brewed by Joseph A. Huber, the second-oldest continuing brewery in the USA (dating from 1845).  Ironically enough, they are the brewers of the Berghoff brand at present.  Next is a Korr's Steam-brewed Beer, a product of Geyer Brothers, who ran the old Frankenmuth brewery until bought out in 1987.  The main plant burned in 1987,  but the remains were turned into a microbrewery, which was then destroyed by an F3 tornado in 1996.  How's that for hard luck?  I think my nephew had something to do with this one.  Finally, one of those rare Miller Lites that wasn't a twist off.  Another Zulu child.
Second row kicks off with a Miller Lite Florida twist off, nicely flattened.  Next up is another Florida stamp, an Old Style  twist off (the only branding is G. Heilman Brewing Co. who owned damn near everything for a while before overreaching , being bought with Junk bonds by Aussie Alan Bond in 1991, and going belly-up in 1996). Following him are his brethren, one a regular twist off (a Zulu child which hasn't taken the ages so well) and the other a non-twist that was a roadside find.  Finishing off row two is a Heineken Florida stamp.

Next up is a regular Heineken I pulled from the tar of Webster Road, on a walk with my nephew and his sister.  This was a famous walk in family history;  It was late in the weekend, and my nephew (who was only 3 years my junior) was known for getting a little irritable-and irritating- at this point in the proceedings.  He decided to take it out on his sister (who was about 5-6 at the time) by repeatedly depositing her face first on the asphalt.  Her response to this was to bounce up and scream, "You FOCKER!" (yes, she knew neither the meaning of the word nor the pronunciation).  Eventually the story got to my sister, who twisted it into "FOCKER, FOCKER, FOCKER!!!" where it has remained ever since.
Then comes a Labatt's 50 Ale that came through another nephew, whose mom I believe had relations in Canada.  Next comes your garden-variety Miller Lite twist off, followed by the typical Miller High Life tall twist (albeit a bit paler than the norm), and the common Miller twist off.  Line four starts with a non-twist Miller, then a GEORGIA-stamped Miller twist-off. Next are a pair of heavily-battered Lowenbraus ("here's to good friends/ tonight is kind of special/ the beer you pour/ must say something more, somehow/ so tonight, tonight, let it be Lowenbrau"), one black and one blue. definitely "casing the dumpster" caps. And finally, my first Michelob Light cap, a twist off road find.

That's it for board number four.  Next trip down memory lane will feature my beloved Old Crowns.

Father's day gift and new caps

Okay, so here's that Father's day gift I promised to show you all: (along with a little "extra")

That's right, a shirt full of beer caps with the logo, "Last line of defense".  Cool, eh?  On top of the "line" are three new babies, cork liner USA caps fresh from their tour of Australia.

Our babies du jour lead off with a 1954 Oertel's 92.  On its side is "Kentucky beer tax paid 7 5/7 cents- Oertel brg. co. inc., Louisville KY"  Which explains the little blue symbol (which also showed up on that Falls City Hi-Bru I got a while back) which finally dawned on me it was part of the KY state seal.  Next to him is a Heidel-brau from @ 1959.  It says "light pilsener" above the brand and "Beer" below it.  It bears the mark of MCC, which is the Mundet Cork Company.  Funny thing is, not long later this manufacturer of cork, insulation, and asbestos, was bought out by Crown cap and seal, the monster of the industry.  Crown quickly- within 90 days- sold off everything but the cork crown business, but it was about this time that asbestos became material non grata.  A ton of lawsuits directed at Mundet ended up in Crown's lap- and they had to sue to get their liability cut down to the $7 mil they paid for Mundet.  Finally, we have a Fauerbach from 1939 (according to Tavern Trove; CCCI gives a range of 1933-68).  Fauerbach was from Madison, WI and shut down in 1966.  Their historical webpage is pretty cool.

And you think you're old...

Did some research into the approximate ages of my cork caps.  Bouncing between Crown Cap Collectors Int'l website and Tavern Trove.  Two of them avoided any detection- the Cock 'N Bull that I mentioned in an earlier post and a relatively new Japanese cap from Asahi, which I'm guessing was new when I acquired it in the mid-80s.  Two more- a modern looking Budweiser and a lookalike with a Kansas sunflower on the bottom- also defied me, but most Budweisers with the red ring around the edge like these had dated from 1945, and I'll list them there.  Some you've met on this blog previously, some you will meet later on.  All dates are from the earliest issue of the closest matching cap I could find on the two sites.

Unknown:
Cock 'N Bull, (book)1/(board)2
Asahi, 3/17

1965- Budweiser, blue background and white text, 3/23
1962- Breunig's, 3/20; Pabst Blue Ribbon, the familiar blue-on-silver, 3/16
1960- Flecks, 3/23
1959- Drewrys "big D", 1/3; Black Label "two swirl", 1/1
1958- Rainier, 3/23
1956- Berghoff "gold", 3/23; Rolling Rock, the PA 2 cents tax, 3/21; Black Label "one swirl"
1955- Rheingold, 3/15; Busch, 1/2
1952- Beverwyck Irish Cream Ale, 3/23
1950- Gunther "keystone tax", 3/20; Schlitz white background, 3/20; Burgie, 3/15; Regal Pale Ale, 3/15; Old Crown red, 1/5
1949- Blatz, 3/23; Drewrys "South Bend", 3/21
1948- Drewrys red mountie, 3/21; Hamms, both the red with white text and red with gold text, 3/21; Rolling Rock, the 1/2 pint tax, 3/21;  Pabst Blue Ribbon, gold background, 3/21; Gunther, VA tax, 3/15; Old German, VA tax, 3/15
1947- Schlitz, light-cream background, 3/21; Meister Brau, 3/21; Hamms, blue with white text, 3/21.
1946- Drewrys white mountie, 3/21
1945- Budweiser red ring (?); Budweiser, red ring, KS (?)
1941- Schlitz, dark-cream, 3/21; Pabst Breweries, 3/21
1940- Bud, 3/23
1937- Falls City Hi-Bru, 3/23
1936- Berghoff "famous black", 3/23
1935- Muskegon, 3/15
1933, Berghoff "Fort Wayne", 3/23; Miller "High Life Co.", 3/21; Alpen Brau, 3/20.

Board #3

Hello and welcome to board #3.  Next time, I'll have to show you the gift I got for Father's Day, but I didn't think about it when I had the camera out.  Very appropriate to the subject.  And on to the caps.

First we have another corkless '37 Chevy find- a gold and red Falstaff.  I thought I saw this on Tavern trove, but theirs are silver background and don't have the tiny lion's head at top right.  Next is the gold cousin to the silver-faced regular Falstaff we saw last time.  Surprisingly, both colors were ZapatAs.  In the middle of row one is a "union made/twist cap" Columbia- another of my nephew's long ago pilferings.  As I recall, I think Columbia was a Pabst offshoot. Then come my pride and joys- my Drewrys.  "Sparkling streams tumble down through the tall trees/ pure and clean, like the fresh taste of Drewrys/ better water makes a better beer..."  Where they found that near the South Bend brewery, I'm not sure.  The first one is your standard cap, a Zulu child. Then comes my all time favorite- the "BIG D" cork liner I found in the Chevy.

It, too, has lost the bright white of the text over the years, but I love it just the same.

Leading off row two is a Drewrys that replaces the blue-and-silver for red-and-white.  Then comes the first big mouth cap I collected- a Coors tall twist. This one and its next door little cousin were both road finds, exciting in a day when you still didn't see a lot of Coors in our area.  Next to it is another Chevy cap- a Falstaff "Tu-Way" with "Pry or Twist" in the black band with the arrow (lower left) and in the center a a Virginia silhouette with "2¢" inside and "VIRGINIA" printed beneath.  After that, we have one of those Falstaff "rebus" caps, where the puzzle is underneath supposed to be underneath the cap.  This one got misprinted, though, and most of the face (which should have the tankard sketched in black) is blank, and part of the rebus is up the side and a bit on the face.  How they managed that trick physically would be neat to know.

Third row starts out with how the rebus cap is supposed to look- the first is an aluminum tall-twist (which didn't get the rebus) and the second the standard rebus cap. All three of these are Zulu children.  Next comes four Genessee's: #1 has the usual logo replaced with "TURN OFF", and "or use opener" beneath; #2 is a cream ale; next is your standard twist off; and finally an old (but not "cork" old) non-twist.  #1 was a roadie; #2-3 I think were Nephew caps- and the degree of crap on it tells you that Kerr (KPP) used the cheap stuff on their caps too- and #4 was a dump cap.  Next is a Fyfe and Drum Extra Lyte (another one of those beers that was among the first cans you got that were out-of-the-area beers), that as I recall I got from my nephew, who had acquired a couple of empty bottles from a fellow collector.

Next up is your standard tall-twist aluminum Hamms, a Zulu child.  The one that you can't hardly read- even in live action- is a Golden Goebel that was found at a dump, taken home despite the fact their was nothing visible on its face, and revealed to be a Goebel after a bath in boric acid (which was the common get-rid-of-rust solution). 

 Finally, a generic "golden amber"- one of a set of four generic caps that my nephew pocketed (while my back was turned) at a can show after I determined I wasn't going to spend what they wanted for them and walked away.  That was the same place that he brought a Kesslers cone-top to hoping to trade up.  And when this one dealer wouldn't trade for the can he wanted (because he would've been stupid to- Kesslers were relatively easy), he waited till the guy wasn't looking and switched them out.  Thankfully, my nephew has grown out of this short phase and become a relatively upstanding citizen.  I forget what the can he got was- except that it was worth a good $10-$15 more; all I remember is that when we tried to call my bro-in-law to get picked up, we couldn't get through on the pay phone because we were like a half-mile from the WMEE transmitters on Maples Road and the station bled over onto the phone line.  How's that for technology?

And now- Board #2

Since I cheated and did Time Machine last night, I now have time to come over here and go onto board #2.  Maestro, picture #1 if you please.

The slightly dinged gentleman leading off is a Budweiser ez-twist with the Georgia state seal at the bottom- another memento of the 1977 Florida trip.  Next is a Coulardot's Tavern child, a Blatz.  Two doors down is another, and you can see that one has a flat silver background, the other a polished silver.  The first was made by ZapatA, the other by WHS.  In between them is a "twist-Lift" Blatz- no brand on the cap- which I think was one of my nephew's "acquisitions".  The end of row one is a Little Kings Cream Ale.  I used to struggle with what to call these-  the bottle featured the brand name Schoengling's, the cap said "Cincinnati's Finest".  Then they came out with the jingle, "Little Kings Cream Ale, it's too good to be beer," and I knew what THEY called themselves at last.  This is a tall twist aluminum.

Row 2 starts with another LKCA, this time a regular size twist off, likely a Zulu child.  The rest of this row are Busch.  First we have a cork liner from the '37 Chevy.  Next are two twist offs, the second stamped Florida, and I believe both from the trip.  Finally a regular ol' cap from the day, a Zulu child.  Nearly identical to the much older cork, except the text is a hair bigger.

The second half of board 2 starts with a tall twist Busch, from its good shape I'd say another Zulu child.  Following him are a pair of "sparkling" Champales, "the champagne of beers".  The first is  Florida, the second a Georgia.  Next comes a Colt 45 tall twist- I think it was my cousin Ed that used to drink that.  At the end of row three is a Buckhorn beer, and I've been scratching my head over where I got that one.  I know Coulardot's didn't sell it, and I don't think it was a roadside find.  I might have traded a beer can for it, but I just don't know for sure.  Next is kind of an odd bird- a Cock'N Bull cork liner.  Apparently this was a ginger beer- and thus of dubious credentials for my standard, but I didn't know that back then (or until a few minutes ago).  It was brewed in Hollywood by a guy named Jack Morgan, who owned a restaurant of the same name.  We finish the board off with 4 Falstaffs. The first was a common twist off, a Zulu child.  The next has a bit of a story about it. In our old back yard, we had a string of out buildings along the west property line- a dog pen, an attached shed, an overhang with rabbit pens, and a two-holer outhouse.  The yard-wide strip between the property line and the buildings, separated by a wire fence and large holly bushes, became a repository for odd junk that just didn't fit any of the easy-to-get-rid-of garbage categories. One such object was a sink basin whose days of seeing home were over.  I think it might have been a drunken acquisition of my dad's, that didn't pass light of day inspection or mom's wrath.  In any event, I was snooping around back there one day and discovered a 24 oz. beer bottle- with this cap still attached.  It is a tall twist with a little bitty Georgia state seal on it.  How it got back there, I don't know, but I'm guessing it came up with my Mom's sister Lavonne ("Bonnie") and her husband, Roger, during one of their visits from Bartow, Florida.  Not quite as neat (back then) as the ancient dog's skull that worked it's way to the surface back there, but it lasted a LOT longer.

Next was the common Falstaff non-twist, whose paint job has struggled to stand the test of time.  A Zulu child.  And finally one of those really cool black and gold jobs from the sixties.  One of the few non-cork lined caps from out of the '37 Chevy. I struck out on learning more on that cap, but did learn that Hank Williams Sr. died drinking Falstaff.  Weird wild stuff, as Johnny Carson used to say.

That's it for now, kids.  I might have some more good news later today.

UPDATE:  After an hour of painstaking searching, I have uncovered the identity of WHS- W.H. Hutchinsons and Son, a bottler founded waaay back in Chicago, and sold in 1974 to National Can,