Session # 52

As host of Session #52, I’ve decided not to focus on the substance of beer, but the material that plays a supporting role. Bottles, coasters, cans, labels, ads, tap handles, church keys, hats, t-shirts, tip trays, glassware and signs have been collected by fanatics ever since beer has been sold. These objects constitute the world of breweriana, a term that surfaced in 1972 to define any item displaying a brewery or brand name. The majority of highly prized objects are from the pre-prohibition era, but ephemera from every period in brewing history, including craft beer, finds a home with each beer drinking generation.

So what old or new beer related items do you collect and why? It’s that simple. This is your opportunity to share the treasured objects your wife or husband won’t let you display on the fireplace mantle. You don’t need to be a major collector like this guy to participate. In my mind, just a few items constitute a collection. Maybe you have mementos from a beer epiphany or road trips? You can focus on a whole collection or tell the story behind a single item.

I saw this topic and thought to myself that the craft beer ephemera that I hold onto is pretty pedestrian.

I have a big bowl holding a bunch of bottlecaps for a possible future project. Maybe a table like the ones at Saraveza in Portland, where the caps are displayed in colorful patterns under glass. I just need to keep collecting caps to bring that project to life. Also I need to learn how to be handy as well.

I have some empty bottles around. A Laurelwood Deranger Red. A traditional Gose bottle, some of the Stone Brewing collaboration bottles. But since I hate to dust and my wife can see it, hear it and smell dust particles, I keep the bottles to the minimum to avoid having to spend time dusting instead of drinking.

What I spend the most time on are my books of brewery coasters and beer labels. Each page organized by location. So there are multiple California pages, Oregon pages and the like. It will eventually be quite the pictorial chronicle of my journey through beer.

So that is it. No man cave with neon signs. No signed bottles. No framed photographs of me with beer luminaries on the walls. Just a full fridge and memories.