I collected bottle caps, back when everything was bottled. For some reason, it felt like a brewery that had a custom cap had their shit together. Favorite to this day is still from over 20 years ago. One from Work Beer, from the long forgotten Main St. Brewery in RVA. They had a bunch of different caps for that beer (as they did for Fan Lager), faces of construction workers, secretaries, etc. It just said "You Earned It", and I'll be damned if I hadn't. IIRC, it was priced at aroudn $6 for a sixer, so more expensive than BMC at the time, but definitely not anywhere what folks are paying for craft helles or adjunct lagers now, with inflation included.
I used to have a huge beer bottle collection (almost 4000) until the wife convinced me to let it go. Wish I would have done labels - takes a lot less space and gathers a lot less dust
I agree that I usually am nor aware of a beer or brewery going away until it has already happened they still have some Rogue sitting on the shelf at room temp. Though I used to like it, I can’t get motivated to buy any
That's wickedly impressive. IIRC, I had around 2500. The label thing is a great idea, as, like you said, it saves a lot of space, but not all labels are easy to get off, even with the Label Savers. Man, if they had some XS Series, I'da been all over that.
I still have acouple of CBS bottles that still have a Canadian Mounty on the front. I am having a hard time getting myself to go for it even though I know I should. It feels like ruining a piece of art.
Just try to enjoy them to the fullest and who knows, maybe one day you'll meet again somewhere for another experience Really think about, and enjoy it, while you are drinking it so you might recognize the next iteration of the idea from some brewer who misses it.
One of the local liquor stores has some almost year-old Dead 'N' Dead on the warm shelves and another store here in luvely LFK has some warm, year old Dead Guy still available. Anybody wanting to rush off on a road trip to Lawrence, message me & I'll tell you what stores.
I also collect beer can/bottle labels. I have about 2500 now. In addition to the beers that I buy myself, I have reached out to several hundred breweries via email. Most have been very generous with sending me labels if I send them a SASE. I even had one brewery send me 50 different labels free of charge! There are a lot of really nice people out there in the brewing industry.
I went through my first phase of the, "beer-wall-of-fame" when I bought my first house back in the early 90s. When I moved a decade or so ago I cleansed the palate (except for a dozen or so, extra-special-can't-get-'em-anymore bottles/bombers/growlers and in the last 11 years, in addition to those older stars, there's been another 3-4 dozen bottles/bombers/squealers/growlers & now cans that the, "beer-wall-of-fame" has taken over all four walls of the upper kitchen cabinets plus expanded into the living room area. Even though I've been so critical in recent years that a brew rarely makes the beer-wall-of-fame anymore, it's getting to a point that I have to think about downsizing to those stars that I'll never see again & let anything in the future go. .....or expand into another living room wall.....or all of the basement rooms.....but not the garage...never the garage....I've already got too many Guinness signs/clocks/magnets/etc. in there.....as well as in every room of the house....did I mention I LOVE Guinness? And yes, that last bottle of Anchor Steam Old Foghorn is STILL gonna go up on the beer-wall-of-fame (one of the few two-famers along with vintages of BCBS, DFH 120 minutes & Mothers BA M.I.L.F. variants) even though there's already one up there.
Though this is probably bordering on breweriana, I still collect caps, coasters, and, truthfully, whatever small swag I can get my hands on. Again, I'm sure I'll find a use for them someday. FWIW, a bunch of the caps have small circular magnets on them and were on my apartment fridge for a while. Best cap? Probably one of the German ones like these:
I saved an unopened one of these, but ran the fucker over with the JeffUV after I got divorced. I liked the label enough to keep an opened one.
I was also thinking that even though the beer is no longer brewed or if the brewery closed, some bar might be holding onto a keg somewhere for a special occasion or you may be looking in a random store one day and find more bottles down the line and if it can age and hold up like a strong or dark beer it may be fun to have another experience later on after thinking you may not be able to find it again.
I've said this before on here, but whether it's Heady or me that goes first, a tub is being filled while I attempt to drink my way out w/ a straw. Cheers!!!
That reminds me of an old joke: One night, Mrs McMillen answers the door to see her husband's best friend, Paddy, standing on the doorstep. “Hello Paddy, but where is my husband? He went with you to the brewery”Paddy shook his head. “Ah Mrs McMillen, there was a terrible accident at the beer factory, your husband fell into a vat of Guinness stout and drowned”Mrs McMillen starts crying. “Oh don’t tell me that, did he at least go quickly?” Paddy shakes his head. “Not really – he got out 3 times to pee!” Cheers!
