They Brew it, I sell it, You Drink it... and so do I..

Sunday 5 June 2011

The Session 52. Collectibles & Breweriana


A bit late to the party, but here goes:

I've always been a bit of a collector of Beery stuff. It started about 6/7 years ago with a couple of empty beer bottles. Over the next couple of years I amassed quite a collection of them:


This was the peak of my bottle collecting. All different bottles, no repeats. I was quite proud, but indeed they took up far too much space, so I decided on recycling them and making a new collection of things.

The next thing to pre-occupy my geeky side was to take form in writing beer notes in mole skin notebooks. I filled just over 3 - 500 page notebooks aver the next 3 years on all different beers, and loved seeking out different ones to add to the collection. This, I must point out, is different to 'ticking' because I could look back and remember (by reading) what each beer was like and where I was when I tried it. (even if you have 10000 ticks in a book, their just ticks)

I still do a little of this to this day, but my geeky lust has now moved into beer blogging and taken on its newest form. Who knows where it will go from there.

I'm no pro though. That accolade goes to collector above all collectors ever heard of; - my father!

Below is just a snap shot of the hundred odd bar towels he's collected over about 20 years:


And below this is just a snap of the (around a few thousand) bar mats he's accumulated over the past 20 years:


It doesn't take a genius to see that there's a shed load of beer history here, and that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree!

6 comments:

  1. Slightly leftfield comment but looking at the bar towels i'm remembering a trend, possibly punk, of stitching these to jeans and jackets. Am I just imagining this? Are these punks now ageing tickers?

    Also reminds me of my student kitchen which was a collection of bar towels, drip trays, glasses, beer mats... all obtained via dubious means

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  2. I'm not sure about that trend to be honest. I just know my dad picked them all up whilst him and my mum went all over the country visiting pubs and breweries on their honeymoon! (who says you need to go abroad these days!)

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  3. I like collecting stuff. I have several glasses, and bottle tops from Germany, and I've started over here. The one problem with the beer mats and the bottle tops is where to have them. I don't see a point in just putting them in a box. I might find a photo album to put them in.

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  4. Mudskipper - There was a stage where I'd tack beer mats to the wall in a single row which went all the way round the room, like a band of beer.

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  5. Nice, It's unbelievable but i like your different collecting stuff. but we provides pub and bar accessories. Pub stuff.

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  6. bottle collection in want to sell, would you be interested? piece :5000

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