On Collecting Beer Cans

Since the advent of packaged beer in the late 1800's, the collecting of breweriana has been a popular hobby. With the introduction of beer in cans in 1935 by the Krueger Brewing Company of Newark, New Jersey, the first beer can collection was probably begun. But beer can collecting didn't really become popular until 1969, when the St. Louis Globe Democrat ran a story about a local collector. In 1970, a collectors' organization, the Beer Can Collectors of America, was chartered. (The International Book of Beer Can Collecting, Richard Dolphin, Castle Books 1977) The hobby grew in popularity throughout the 1970's, when it seemed that just about everyone had a beer can collection.

I started my collection in 1971, after several of my friends and classmates had started collecting. I had seen their collections and thought it looked pretty cool to display cans in a pyramid configuration. The labels and graphics on the cans were attractive and the cans stacked easily.

My first can was a Coors beer can. An uncle of mine had brought several cases of Coors beer back from a vacation in Colorado and had brought some to a family picnic. I retrieved an empty can from the trash, and my collection had begun.

At first I expanded my collection with cans found by the roadside or from dumpster-diving behind taverns. On family vacations, my dad would purchase local brews from wherever we happened to be, and I kept the empties after he had consumed the contents. I also scoured the trash cans at rest stops, parks, and campgrounds for discarded empty cans. I began to accumulate duplicate trading stock to trade with other collectors, and my collection grew. I also discovered that if you wrote letters to breweries, they would send you empty cans. I accumulated a list of brewery addresses and soon packages of shiny new air-filled cans began arriving in the mail.

As I grew older, several of my friends quit collecting, and I absorbed their collections. When I became old enough to purchase alcoholic beverages, I could buy and consume the beer myself in order to acquire new cans and my collection grew by leaps and bounds.

Today, many craft breweries and microbreweries are selling their beer in cans, and this has become a new source of many interesting and colorful cans, as well as some really good tasting beer!

My collection now numbers 1,730 cans, and is growing all the time. I now collect anything beer-related, such as coasters, bottles and labels, openers, signs, lights, mirrors, glasses and mugs, and hats and clothing. That part of my collection will be the subject of a future installment of this blog.

Here are some views of my collection and some of the more interesting cans:

The collection surrounds the pool table in my rec room.

This is the can that started it all.

Beer cans come in many sizes, ranging from 7 ounces to 1 gallon.

The construction of cans has changed over the years. Left to right: cone top, flat top, ring type tab top, contemporary stay-on tab top. Until the late 1970's, most cans were made of steel; all cans are now made of aluminum.

Cans shaped like beer kegs.

Left to right: 7-Eleven once had its own beer brand; Regal Select 6 for 99₵ (cheap beer!);

generic beer.

Sex sells beer! Who would have thought?

Brewed in the Quad Cities. Left to right: Blackhawk Beer was brewed in Davenport, Iowa. The brewery went out of business in the 1950's; Old Tavern beer was brewed by the Rock Island Brewing Company. This brewery also went out of business in the 1950's. The brand was purchased by the Warsaw Brewing Company of Warsaw, Illinois, who brewed it until the 1970's; Great River Brewing Company is located on 2nd Street in Davenport, just off the Government Bridge.

Beers with numbers in their names.

Some beer cans did not contain beer. Left to right: Anheuser Busch canned water for the Iowa flood victims in 2008; Lite can that held a T shirt; Budweiser can containing handkerchiefs; Guinness can held pajama pants.

Bent River Brewing Company cans designed and created by the author. This is the only set in existence.

Another can designed and created by me.

Bix Beer brewed by August Schell Brewing Company, New Ulm, Minnesota for the 1979 Bix Beiderbecke Jazz Festival. The current incarnation of Bix Beer is made and canned by Great River Brewing Company, Davenport, Iowa.