What do you collect besides the beer?

[chazwicke]

I know everyone here collects the beer but are there others like me who also collect other brewery / beer items (breweriana)? I collect anything and everything relating to beer but in the past several years have tried to limit my focus a bit. I have decided to try to limit my collection to Virginia, Washington DC. and Maine breweries as well as items from Greene King and Sons in England. I am most intensely interested in the Christian Heurich and Robert Portner breweries. However, I still will pick up other items if I like them or they are at a reasonable price so that I may sell or trade them later. I have everything from Beer Trays, coasters, openers, labels, bottles, cans, calenders, foam scrapers, advertisements, crowns/caps, glasses, pens/pencils, lighters, pins, magnets, clocks, tap handles, mugs, tip trays, diecast beer trucks, Hats, shirts, post cards, matchbooks, pump clips, bar towels, signs, posters, and whatever else I can turn up in my travels. I am constantly visiting antique stores, flea markets, estate and yard sales. Of course ebay is a great place to buy and sell stuff. What do you collect besides the beer?

[fuji6100]

I mainly collect the caps. When I was in college, I collected all the caps from beer I drank (even saving caps from my trip to Canada and had my friend bring back some from Mexico) and eventually when I had about 400 I built a small end-table and completly covered/tiled the top of it with my caps. Now that is my "drinking" table. And a lot of the caps have a story to tell so it's a great conversation piece.

I've been saving up again since then and now I have over 600 (I've been saving for about 3 years now) and when I get to about 1000 I'm going to make a bigger, more stury table to match the other one.

[hopjack13]

coasters, although i don't have very many. also i lke to peel the lables off stone brews:p

[paul84043]

I have a farily large collection of steins, mugs, and glasses. Most are german, the american glasses are all microbrew glasses.

[hopjack13]

ah yes .......glasses , i have many many pint glasses from all kinds of different brewerys , im going to buy an imperial pint glass this weekend with the fullers logo on it . also i just bought one that has guinness printed on the top and harps on the bottom , then on the back it says authentic half & half . it's kind of a collection but put to good use.

[steveh]

Paul and Hopjack, your collections sound like mine - drinking vessels and coasters. Coasters are easy souvenirs when you're beer hunting.

BTW - Hopjack, a Fullers imperial pint glass would be cool, but if you want a nice "expendable" one (dishwashers can be unforgiving), Crate and Barell usually carries good ones - half imperials too, good for the smaller bottles or sharing a bigger bottle.

To add to the collectors corner (isn't there another thread for this?) I recently bought a 30s vintage, hand-printed, Spaten poster created by the popular graphic artist Ludwig Hohlwein. You might recognize his artwork from the Fanciscan Monk portrait on the Franziskaner Weiss Bier label.

S.

[hopjack13]

yeah whats with the monk on their bottles any way? they going for the abby/trappist thing maybe? sounds cool though. i got a bierbiztch poster not as unique or as valuable as yours by far ,... but the broad on the poster makes you wanna drop to your knee's and thank god your a man. she's not as pretty as my wife though (had to throw that one in) speaking of my wife she loves vintage stuff, clothes , collectibles any thing from the roaring 20's up to the 50's coca cola anything.

crate and barrell ? can i get there online?

[steveh]

Originally posted by hopjack13
yeah whats with the monk on their bottles any way? they going for the abby/trappist thing maybe?

The Franciscan Brotherhood made wheat beers. Beer making is/was popular with men of the cloth the world over.

crate and barrell ? can i get there online?

Yep - probably. http://www.crateandbarrel.com/itemgroups/1698_0.asp?query=pint%20glass&DIMID=&Page=1&fromLocation=Search

Hmm, 1/4 pint glasses? Never seen those before.

S.

[paul84043]

I have a few very rare steins that I am very proud of, they are fantastic. It's amazing what you can find on Ebay...

My homebrew shop has steins for sale as well, they have a few of your standard ceramic 1L steins that I have also, and they are asking 50$ + for them...I didn't pay more than 15 $ for them (each).

A friend of mine just came back from So. Cal, he brought me a couple Arrogant Bastard Ruination IPA glasses, as well as mailing me 60 pounds of Arrogant.....it'ought to be showing up today!!! I'm so excited....

[steveh]

You can go literally insane looking at all of the steins and krugs in the shops along the Marien Platz in Munich. I bought a really nice one at Neuschwanstein, King Ludwig's fairy tale castle. It has a portrait of the King molded into the bottom that you can't see until you finish your beer and tip the bottom toward the light. The outside decoration is a painting of the castle.

However, the best mass krugs (ceramic litre mugs) I've seen were the personal krugs being hoisted by the Munich Hoffbrauhaus band. The thumb piece to the lid was a finely detailed sculpture of Munich's twin church domes - and the rest of the vessel was beautiful too. Membership has its privileges.

60 pounds? I'm going to assume that was the UPS shipping weight - the Bastard *is* still in liquid form, right? Le'see water weighs 8 pounds and change per gallon...

S.

[paul84043]

You are correct...still in liquid form!! 20 oz bottles, 3 Ruination IPA, 3 regular IPA, 3 Smoked porter, 3 Arrogant Ale, and a sixer of 12 oz bottles....what a friend!!

I have a decent collection of Hoffbrau stuff, It's some of my favorite. I have several HB lidded steins and krugs. I have many different sizes including some really off the wall, rare sizes like 8/20 L, 1/4 L with the raised bottom to give it the same appearance as a .5L, and even a few with the level mark right over the insignia, which are supposed to date to the 20's.
Some of the most beautiful are the Lowenbrau annual steins, they are fantastic.
I have a Kolner "figural" stein that is one of 2000 made, it's shaped like a bear, it's supposed to be an exact copy of a very old stein that's on display in a museum in Koln. It's really unique and pretty pricey. It's not even on display, I keep it locked in the safe.
I have another that's a 4L 100th anneversary for Veltins Brau, it's 80 years old and perfect... They are lots of fun. I like to pull one down every now and then and actually use it, it's kind of neat.

[steveh]

Originally posted by paul84043
They are lots of fun. I like to pull one down every now and then and actually use it, it's kind of neat.

Yep. That's the best part - I always try to match the style of beer (if not the brand) I'm drinking to the proper drinking vessel - unless I'm just plain lazy asnd drink it straight from the bottle - don't worry you purists! It's usually just a bottle of Dinkel Acker - and I have glasses for them too!

BTW - It's one of my goals in life to have a personal krug at the Munich Hoffbrauhaus or the Hoffbrau Keller. This less commercial venue on the opposite side of the river would be preferable, but beggers can't be choosers. ;)

S.

[hopjack13]

well i have one stien that i got from the santa anita race track when i went to their microbrew festival does that count?

Hmm, 1/4 pint glasses? Never seen those before.

yeah ..,.they're for the kids:D
i think i'll pick some up.
thnx steveh

[chazwicke]

My beer glass collection numbers just over 300. I have all shapes and sizes but I think most are pints. I have several pre-pro embossed or etched beer glasses two of which are Robert Portner "Tivoli" stemmed glasses. I have not counted my stoneware/ceramic mugs and steins. I would guess around 50. I have some pre-pro mugs as well. they are from the Christian Huerich Brewing Company of Washington DC. I like coasters and have hundreds of which I may soon start selling on ebay. My favorite collectable is labels.

[hopjack13]

not................stone lables by chance?:p

[paul84043]

The krugs that I have are actually 1/4 Litre...pretty strange to see them mix both english and metric systems like that.
The same for the 8/20 L mugs....

[Brewdepest]

I've begun collecting the bottles from my experimentations, but have one problem:
What do I do when I try something new at a friend's house or bar/restaurant?
I've been losing out on that end due to fear of open container laws.

[hopjack13]

put it in the trunk and try not to get pulled over (i.e. dont break any traffic laws)