Cans Beer » Beer Can Collecting http://cansbeer.com Cans, Beer & More Sun, 20 May 2012 11:35:15 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Canned Craft Beer Festival – May 21, 2011 http://beercanblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/canned-craft-beer-festival-may-21-2011.html http://beercanblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/canned-craft-beer-festival-may-21-2011.html#comments Thu, 07 Apr 2011 04:20:00 +0000 on-the-rocks
Here is the list of participating breweries.

Wow. That would be a great place to pick up lots of new cans and try some new beers.

If I still lived in El Paso,...it might be doable, but from Atlanta, just not feasible.
]]> http://cansbeer.com/07/canned-craft-beer-festival-may-21-2011/feed/ 0 To Quote Yogi Berra, "It’s Deja Vu All Over Again" http://beercanblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/to-quote-yogi-berra-its-deja-vu-all.html http://beercanblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/to-quote-yogi-berra-its-deja-vu-all.html#comments Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:40:00 +0000 on-the-rocks
From the website "Craft Cans", as of today, their database consists of 283 cans from 109 different breweries. With the new wave of microbrewery cans added to the pre-microbrewery cans", beer cans have been produced in 48 of the 50 states, with Mississippi and Arkansas being the only two without "native" cans.

Today's microbreweries are taking the place of (and in some cases, resurrecting the names of) the remaining regional and local breweries that were slipping away in the mid-1970s, when I and many other "senior collectors" began. One way we built our early collections (when buying and selling were frowned upon by the B.C.C.A.) was to buy local and regional brands and trade them with other collectors in other parts of the country.

In the Atlanta area - at the time when I began - most of the tradeable cans were regionals that drifted in from time to time. The numerous G. Heileman brands, National Brewing Co. (Regal), Duncan Brewing Co. (Auburndale, FL), sometimes Pearl Brewing Co. and Pittsburgh Brewing Co. brands would sometimes grace our store shelves and supplant our trade stocks. Now all of those are gone (or are owned/contract-brewed by someone else), but they have been replaced by microbreweries.

Starting a collection from scratch is a slow process, but it is how you gradually build the knowledge that makes you a true collector. Simply buying a collection doesn't really make you a collector, in and of itself. You have to have a knowledge of the histories of the breweries and cans to feel a part of the "fine madness" of our hobby.

[As I have to get back to work, I will write more later, but consider this...all of the currently-available "micro cans" are NOT nationally distributed, so a collector somewhere else needs them. Some of these micro breweries will not survive or else they may decide that maintaining canning and bottling lines does not work for them, so the cans may be a "one shot deal" - worth putting a few aside for future trading.]
]]> http://cansbeer.com/05/to-quote-yogi-berra-its-deja-vu-all-over-again/feed/ 0 A Brewery Inside of a Volcano? http://beercanblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/brewery-inside-of-volcano.html http://beercanblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/brewery-inside-of-volcano.html#comments Mon, 28 Feb 2011 04:29:00 +0000 on-the-rocks
It is Mammoth Brewing Co., of Mammoth Lakes, California. The town lies within the Long Valley Caldera, which measures 11 miles by 20 miles.

The brewery's three canned varieties include Mammoth Epic IPA, Mammoth Golden Trout, and Mammoth Real McCoy Amber Ale. There seems to be only one variety with a volcanic reference, that is Floating Rock Hefeweizen, probably referring to pumice, which - due to its small gas vesicles - is capable of floating.

Other varieties are listed here: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/4051

As this supervolcano (caldera) is considered active, it is possible that the area might have to someday be evacuated.
]]> http://cansbeer.com/28/a-brewery-inside-of-a-volcano/feed/ 0 Happy 76th Birthday to the Beer Can http://beercanblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/happy-76th-birthday-to-beer-can.html http://beercanblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/happy-76th-birthday-to-beer-can.html#comments Tue, 25 Jan 2011 02:32:00 +0000 on-the-rocks
On January 24th, 1935, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Co. rolled out cans of its Krueger Special Beer and Krueger Cream Ale in the Richmond, Virginia market.

Richmond was selected as it was far enough from Krueger's home market, that if the cans flopped, it wouldn't do as much damage to their reputation.

It turned out they didn't have to worry. According to the linked article, by the end of 1935, 37 breweries were canning beer.

And the rest is history.
]]> http://cansbeer.com/24/happy-76th-birthday-to-the-beer-can/feed/ 0 An Interview with BCCA Prez, Pat Cornils… http://beercanblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/interview-with-bcca-prez-pat-cornils.html http://beercanblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/interview-with-bcca-prez-pat-cornils.html#comments Fri, 21 Jan 2011 16:11:00 +0000 on-the-rocks Craft Cans website. Of note, since 2006, each winner of the BCCA U.S. Can-of-the-Year has been a craft can, i.e., not from long-established American brewers.

According to the Craft Cans website, on their database, there have been 339 different brands produced by 126 U.S. breweries. By some definitions, long-established regional brewers, e.g., Spoetzl, Saranac (F.X. Matt), and Stevens Point. This is not the time or place to argue this point, as it serves no useful purpose, however if a friend asks about it, you can politely inform them of the "seniority of these brewers".
]]> http://cansbeer.com/21/an-interview-with-bcca-prez-pat-cornils/feed/ 0 The Lone Star Flat Top and the P-38 http://beercanblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/lone-star-flat-top-and-p-38.html http://beercanblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/lone-star-flat-top-and-p-38.html#comments Sun, 02 Aug 2009 11:56:00 +0000 on-the-rocks

Here is another can I picked up at our recent brewery collectibles show at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a Lone Star "soft top" from the early 1960s. The soft top was a step along the way towards the pull-tab top. Some of the brands that used the soft top were Schlitz, Budweiser and Busch (on aluminum cans), Hamms, Walter's, Pearl, Black Label, Point Special, and even Iron City.

I picked up this can to replace one of the cans that I regrettably sold years ago, while I was selling off large portions of my collection to pay bills. When ya got a family, ya do what ya gotta do.

I had found a couple of these cans in May or early June 1978, when I began what was to have been my original thesis project in the Eagle Mts. in West Texas.

When we selected our first campsite, next to a windmill and well (always a good idea in a desert or semi-desert setting), after the tents were set up and scoping out the campsite, I noticed a couple of Lone Star cans under a mequite bush. Carefully crawling under the mesquite, avoiding its thorns, I retrieved the two cans. One of the cans was full and the other one had its top removed with a P-38 military-style can opener. One side of the full can was buried in the mesquite needles, while the exposed side was sun-bleached and rusted. The other cans was more buried in the needles and more protected.

The question immediately arose, why did someone go to the trouble of completely removing the top of the can with a P-38, to presumably drink the beer? And then not drink the other one.

Sometime later, elsewhere in the campsite, I found a Lone Star can opener, which seemed to offer some evidence as to what might have happened a some 15 years earlier.

Presumably, the person/persons at the campsite (on a ranch) first lost their can opener (a common tragedy in pre-pull tab days), then decided to open a can with the P-38. Perhaps the second can was deemed to much trouble to open in this fashion or perhaps it had gotten too warm by then and the full can was tossed along with the empty (and its removed top) under the mesquite.

Otherwise, while in the Eagle Mts., I found a displayable Pearl flat top can and some fellow grad students gave me a different (older) Lone Star, which I still have on my shelves. In their study area, there was an old ranch house, used by hunters. I would have loved to have had a step ladder to check the attic area, as there was an opening from the main room. Tossing empties into attics was a common practice and the cans are usually fairly well preserved. It just wasn't doable, looking back, maybe I could have brought a step ladder in my truck on a return trip from El Paso, but the geological work was deemed more important.

[Because of a series of unfortunate events, I didn't finish that thesis project, but did another thesis project in southern New Mexico a few years later.]

The four displayable cans found in the Eagle Mts. represent the sum total of displayable beer cans found during my outdoor geological career, i.e., during field work over the course of 30 years. I have a found a number of rusty, unidentifiable cans, but no other "keepers".
]]> http://cansbeer.com/02/the-lone-star-flat-top-and-the-p-38/feed/ 0 Can Close-Up – Falstaff 11 oz. http://beercanblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/can-close-up-falstaff-11-oz.html http://beercanblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/can-close-up-falstaff-11-oz.html#comments Sat, 01 Aug 2009 04:20:00 +0000 on-the-rocks
I have to admit I have been remiss about actual beer can blogging, lately. So I decided to blog about a couple of cans I picked up at our recent show at the Atlanta Motor Speedway (last Friday/Saturday).

The white flat top can pictured is from the late 1950s/early 1960s. Falstaff was a big seller at that time, and they had a number of breweries at that time, so this is not a rare can per se, except for a minor detail, it is an 11 oz can, rather than a 12 oz can.

On this can and the previous white flattop can, Falstaff listed the brewery at which the can was filled, along with the other cities along the side seam of the can. As I lived in El Paso for 14 years, this being an El Paso can makes it of interest. What is highly unusual about this is that it is an 11 oz can from a state where 11 oz cans were not sold.

Though I don't know the exact story behind the 11 and 15 oz cans sold in some western states, it was probably done for "tax loophole" reasons, i.e., to avoid the taxes on 12 and 16 oz. cans. In VA, SC, and LA, breweries avoided size-specific taxes by selling 10 and 14 oz. cans. The 14 oz cans proved popular enough that sales spread to other southern states, such as MS and GA. Brands such as Budweiser, Busch, Schlitz, Old Milwaukee, Meister Brau, Black Label, Falstaff, Burger, and National Bohemian were among those sold in the 14 oz cans in these states. Within the last 5 years, I seem to remember Old Milwaukee being sold in 14 oz cans in Louisiana.

In the western states of CA, WA, OR, UT, CO, NM, and AZ, 11 and (less commonly) 15 oz cans seem to be analagous to the 10 and 14 oz cans mentioned above, though the 11 oz cans were phased out earlier than the 14 oz cans. Some brands sold in 11 oz cans in these states included Coors, Schlitz, Olympia, Rainier, Black Label, Big Sky, Cascade, Sierra, Hamms, and Falstaff. Falstaff 11 oz flat top cans from San Jose, CA are not really unusual.

An 11 oz. Falstaff can from El Paso IS HIGHLY UNUSUAL. Coupled with the San Jose top (suggesting it was indeed filled in San Jose), it makes for some interesting possibilities. It just seems that with the San Jose brewery in production, why would they make 11 oz. cans for the El Paso brewery, when 11 oz cans could probably not be sold in Texas? I think it is likely an error can, i.e., the canning company made up a batch of 11 oz cans (slightly smaller in diameter) by mistake and El Paso being unable to use them, the batch was sent to San Jose for filling.

Such an oddity would primarily be of interest to Falstaff-specific collectors or Texas-specific collectors. Picking up a can with a story behind it is part of what makes the hobby interesting.

Another unusual Texas can I would like to get at some time would be a Carling Black Label from Fort Worth. Carling operated their newly-built Fort Worth brewery for perhaps 3 months before selling it to Miller around 1964 or so.
]]> http://cansbeer.com/01/can-close-up-falstaff-11-oz/feed/ 0 A Surprisingly Drinkable Beer… http://beercanblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/surprisingly-drinkable-beer.html http://beercanblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/surprisingly-drinkable-beer.html#comments Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:04:00 +0000 on-the-rocks Schlitz High Gravity V.S.L. (Very Smooth Lager), 8.5% alcohol content.

While visiting a local liquor store, I was checking out some of the 24 oz. cans and I noticed a new brand. It is an attractive black, gold, and silver colored can, emblazoned with the Schlitz Malt Liquor bull motif.

When I opened the can (from the bottom), I wasn't expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised. The beer was surprisingly smooth and drinkable and there was no "alcohol taste" that one might expect with a mass-marketed high-gravity lager.

My friend "mytmalt" said that at the Beer Advocate website, the sole reviewer of this brand gave similar reviews.
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