The most disappointing thing for a bottle cap collector is to find out a brewery doesn't bottle or uses blank caps on their product. We all know that Flying Dog, Three Floyds, Dogfish Head, etc.... have artwork on their caps, but are there any local or regional breweries near you that you think the majority of collectors might be surprised to find out they use bottle caps with artwork or text on them? If so, name a few, por favor! I'll start. In Alabama, we have only one which currently uses artwork on the caps: Avondale Brewing Company. Olde Towne Brewing in Huntsville, AL used artwork caps for while, but the brewery doesn't exist anymore.
Another angle to your post is that many breweries when they first start bottling will use caps without graphics, and then later will switch to something with art on it. I'm guessing that many collectors will write off a brewery when they learn that the caps are plain, and then no longer pay attention to that brewery to find out later that the cap has changed. Two breweries here in Michigan that added logo graphics after a plain-cap start-up are Arbor and Odd Sides.
Good point. The opposite stinks too when a brewery uses graphic caps, then switches to blank caps (i.e. Dixie Brewing) Both Arbor and especially Oddside have really cool caps now.
My favorite local brewery (Santa Clara Valley Brewing) started out with a very nice cap (probably because the owner was pressured by some of his cap-collecting friends, like me). Then his beer got popular very quickly and their supply of graphic-caps disappeared and turned to blank gold, but they have since resupplied with their original. In terms of overall looks, the painted cap makes for a much better-presented bottle of beer. Being a collector might make me biased, but if I wasn't and was looking at two new beers, I would take the one with the graphic cap if the beers were similarly priced. It seems like if they're willing to spend a little extra dough on painting their caps, then maybe they spend a little more their beer...
New to the awesomeness of collecting beer caps. I am not the most organized or serious of collectors yet. Basically after I drink a beer, I drop the cap in a large Bell canning jar. Doesn't matter how many how many of that beer or brewery I've had. By the time the jar is full, it almost looks like a big jar of candy. I am kinda partial to this way because it's almost a record of my craft beer journey. My question is, are the others who keep 'em all? Also, does anyone keep the corks from beers like Russian River along with the cap that's on top of the cork? I drop that cork in the jar as well. As for the OP's original question, I am watching 4 Hands and Solemn Oath. They use the black caps (which I keep as well), and I'm hoping they'll switch over to a printed cap soon. Especially, Solemn Oath. Their label art is pretty cool.
(I swear I originally typed a bunch of stuff with this one!) I keep one of each for my collection and the rest I throw in Rubbermaid tubs. I really had no idea what I was going to do with them for many years until I started trading. I have gotten folks bulk amounts for bar tops, floors, etc. as well. I also collect corks (1 of each as well) and just about anything else, beer-wise. If you want more caps, I have a feeling the OP could probably can help, by the way! As far as blank caps go, are there any that you guys DO keep? Ones that are colored, for instance? The all-orange Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin Ale and all-brown Sierra Nevada Life and Limb come to mind as ones I have kept, despite their lack of graphics...
Thanks for the reply! Rubbermaid tubs? Wow! That's awesome! Right now, I am just keeping the one'si get from drinking myself. I amsure it is going to cross over into trading. Just waiting until I move into a place with more space and I get more unique caps. Nice to know I'm not the only one saving the corks, too.
I keep every cap from a beer that I drink, including my homebrew caps that are plain silver or gold. I also have many from a source that was giving caps to me from a local bar that sold about half-half craft and BMC. I figure that I could use the red Bud caps, etc. and the non-graphic caps as part of the background or border if I ever create a mosaic of some kind. But now it seems that all of them are being made into magnets to cover the heat duct on the ceiling of my man cave.
Jermsumm, Straight to Ale recently began using custom caps on their beers, to add one to the Alabama list. Tennessee has two that I know of that do (or at least two in which I have caps). Yazoo and Blackstone, both from Nashville.
Straight To Ale caps are really cool, but might only be on their bombers? It's a maroon and white cap, pretty cool. I picked up a sweet Goose Island cap a couple weeks back, has an art deco feel to it. Very cool, IMO. Was on their high gravity offerings only. Highlands had a special cap, Shipyard, Red Brick Brewing and Lakefront all have newer caps. Also saw the new Green Flash cap on the shelves. Biggest bummer I've seen is the recent movement to cans. Cans means no bottle caps, and that makes me sad.
Cans make me sad, too. Too bad so many good beers come in them! ***ALERT***Firestone's new IPA, Easy Jack, has it's own cap now and it is awesome! It finally replaced the "generic" bear and lion caps.
Jack's Abby and Maine Beer Co. started out with silver bottle caps. Jack's Abby recently switched to green caps with their logo on it and Maine Beer Co. kept the silver bottle caps and added their name, wheat logo, and slogan on the caps. As far as answering your question, the look of their bottle caps wouldn't deter me from drinking their beers, and I am a tad bit disappointed when I find a brewery that doesn't put art on their caps (Mikkeller)
