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!

BOOM!

Our story started last week when Scrappy and I found this cap.  I soon determined it was a Shiner Bock, from the Spoetzel brewery in Shiner, TX.  I went to their website and found a fascinating website with a fascinating story.  But most fascinating to me was what I found on the FAQ page:

Q:	My grandpa collects bottle caps from all over. Being the Shiner beer fan that he is, I’d love to add to his collection with the new caps that recently came out. Can I purchase those or do I have to buy a six-pack of each brand?
A:	We’ll be happy to send you some of our Shiner bottle caps; just send us your mailing address. (Due to the high volume of e-mail we receive, please include the body of this message in your reply so we’ll know what it’s in reference to. Thanks!)

Yow! So I did as instructed, and today I got two of the one we found, plus these:

The top row I was able to find on their ingenious website; the three on the bottom I had to do a little digging.  Here's what we have:

Top left:  This is Blonde Light, their light version of their regular lager.
Top center: 102 is a double wheat ale (which uses a 50%wheat mix), that they describe as "a hybrid between wheat beer and wheat wine".
Top right: their Bohemian Black Lager, their darkest blend using imported Czech saaz hops (for geographically illiterate, Czech Rep. = Bohemia + Moravia).
Middle left: The Shiner Hefeweitzen, a wheat beer with orange and lemon zest, with clover honey and yeast added just before bottling to give a double fermentation.
Middle center: Blonde, their basic lager.
Middle right: Their seasonal Oktoberfest.
Bottom left: The outer ring says (top)limited edition (bottom)craft brew; inside, (small) Shiner selection (large) brewers pride.  This is their "old time alt", an ale brewed Dusseldorf style with top fermentation.
Bottom center: Kosmos Shiner reserve, an American style pale lager.  Kosmos Spoetzel was the founder of the brewery.
Bottom right: reading "the perfect summer beer", this is called Ruby Redbird summer ale, brewed with Ruby Redbird Texas Grapefruit and ginger.

I thank Anne Raabe over at Spoetzel PR.  Check out the Shiner website (that's what the link's for)- and Theng, she sent me doubles, I'll send them over next time!  This donation (hence forth known as the Spoetzel donation) brings us up to 491 caps, and so, though this isn't exactly blog-related, I hereby award Spoetzel and Ms. Raabe the coveted Trophee du Beagle!

You guys are the fourth recipient of this great award.  Enjoy it in good health and God's grace!

Boards 13 and 14.

Today, we finish off the second binder.  And, I'd like to announce that now I've figured out how to make a computer-generated list of these things on my computer.  Way easier to keep track of things.

Leading us off today is a Miller Sharps, which was their non-alcohol brew.  Next is a Bud whose distinguishing trait is the thin arrows for twisting at the top and bottom of the cap. Third is a Moosehead which a)actually is staying in good shape unlike the first one, and b)has text on it, unlike the first one. The Bud Light next has the arrows at the sides of the logo and "twist off" on top.  Following him is my one and only Bud Dry.  Apparently run out of customers by Bud Ice, they stopped making this just last December.
Second row starts with a very light Coors Light, with just the cursive (remember cursive?) Coors and the printed Light.  Next is a Rolling Rock, one of three variations of this style I have.  It's one of those caps that has the company's full address on the side (to which I say, even if the drinker wanted it, why would he look there?).  Next is the familiar Coors waterfall, with the text "the Rocky Mountain Legend" around the side.  Probably would have been a more effective advertising back in the Smoky And The Bandit days when you couldn't get it everywhere.  God knows 98% of caps I find on the ground are either Bud Light or Coors Light.  I was about to look up the top beers to see if they were one and two, but I just found this game that gives you 3 minutes to guess the top 15 sellers in the USA in 2010.  I got 11 of 15 (the 95th percentile!); you can play here.

Now that I'm done with that bunny trail, the last two on this picture are an exact replica of the first Coors in an aluminum tall twist (that isn't so tall anymore) and a Sapporo, a Japanese cap out of Tokyo.

On this picture, the first and third are two more of the endless variations of Little Kings.  Tucked in between them is a Huber.  Next is an older MGD, one that says Miller at the top, Geniune draft at the bottom, with arrows for the twist connecting. Then comes a Bud with the same logo as the one before, but the arrow placement and text of the Bud light we just looked at.  Second row leads off with an Augsberger, a seasonal brand bought by Strohs in 1989 and discontinued when Strohs crashed and burned in 2000.  Then comes a Colt 45 Dry, another of the craze of dry beers in the late 1980s.  Dry beer is given a longer fermentation, to make it stronger- similar to Malt Liquor (which Colt 45 was) except ML uses an additional brewing process.  So dry beers were beers trying to be malt liquors, and a dry malt liquor is... uh...

Next is an Olde English 800, another malt liquor (made by Miller) that was trying to be "English" (which it wasn't.  Then come a pair of less than aesthetically pleasing entries- a silver Strohs tall twist, and a Miller Lite tall twist that, like a previous Miller cap, was misprinted, with a partial logo on the side and a blank top.  Not sure how you accomplish that one.

Leading off this section is an Old Milwaukee tall twist.  Then an MGD Light with no mention of Miller on the cap.  Third is a Coors Light that is similar to the regular cap a while back (albeit not so faded) on a tall twist.  Then a Michelob with the Twist Off and arrows on the top (instead of the side of the cap as a previous one had).The next one is a rather flattened Michelob Classic dark.  Second row is another couple of Colt 45s, one a tall twist and one a regular.  Then comes the mysterious Hi Dragon, which I have had zero luck in finding anything out about.  Following her is a Paulaner, which is a German brand brewed by the Mimin Friars.  Finally on this picture is a very rusty, almost illegible Labatt, an example of the depths to which I will stoop (as if the Hi Dragon wasn't).

Today's last picture leads off with a pair of Champales, which were malt liquors brewed with yeast normally used for wine to give them a queer wine-y taste.  Then comes a Red Horse, an extra-strong Philippine beer.  Next is a "beware the penguins" Bud Ice cap- truly one of the stupider ad campaigns of our lifetime.  Finishing the first row is a Steinlager, which is an award winning beer from Germany New Zealand.  Leading of our last row for today is a Corsendonk Agnus, "a bubbly beer with a hoppy aftertaste" brewed in Belgium and originated once again by friars who had nothing better to do. Then comes a Molson Golden, followed by  a Grolsch which is out of the Netherlands.  Wrapping things up are a gold colored Busch and a flattened, faded, but still unique Strohs tall twist.

Okay, that's a wrap for today.  Next time we'll go into binder #3 at long last!