The reasons about why and what we collect are as varied as the actual memorabilia we covet. One of my favorite categories is beer bottle labels. How I arrived at this collecting interest is somewhat complicated, so some background is required.

My father worked for the Miller Brewing Company for 34 years. He was a City Delivery Driver in Milwaukee, peddling bottle, can, and keg beer throughout the downtown area. While my dad was not a collector of breweriana as such, he had built a bar and rec-room in our basement and wanted to decorate with authentic  brewery point-of-sale items. So, I grew up in an environment where not only current, but obsolete signs, trays, coasters, and all sorts of promotional items were on display and actually used.

My father knew everyone in the tavern, restaurant, and hotel business in Milwaukee, and had access behind every bar and into every basement in the commercial district. A lot of obsolete brewery items were easily found and either given to him, or traded for “lunch beer”. I don’t believe he ever paid cash for anything, as all the “junk” laying around in the early 1960s was there for the asking! As a kid, I even spent a few summer days riding the Miller route truck with him and seeing these hidden from the public spots in person!

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1) Salvaged from closed bottling departments - Many breweries went out of business in the late 1930’s and throughout the 1940’s. Large label stocks were left behind in abandoned buildings where later owners of the buildings were often surprised to find 1000’s of old beer labels left behind. Sometimes the vacant buildings were entered by curious collectors that also salvaged the labels and kept them from being destroyed.

2) Brewery archives - Often breweries kept records in their archives that included labels. The labels were kept for reference and were often a chronological history of the brands produced. Some large breweries bought smaller breweries, and with the takeover came additional archives. So larger breweries can also contain the archive labels from smaller breweries.

3) Printer’s & lithographer’s samples - The companies that printed labels made sample books for their salesmen and prospective customers. The printers also kept beer label samples for their files. Many prototype and short-run labels are found in printing archives that may never have been marketed.

4) Brewery workers brought labels home - Everybody brings stuff home from work and brewery workers were no different. Beer labels were inexpensive and made nice souvenirs for brewery employees. Many long-time brewery employees had large beer label collections.

5) Collectors asked the breweries for labels - The hobby of beer label collecting is not new. As long as their have been beer labels there has been collectors that seek them. When visiting a brewery a beer label was a small momentum to bring home. Advanced beer label collectors would write breweries asking for labels through the mail. Many breweries were eager to promote their labels across the country. During the 1930’s and 1940’s most breweries graciously sent labels to any collector that would write the brewery asking for sample labels.

[Next USBL Blog article : Where can you find old beer labels?]

Buy Beer Labels - Sell Beer Labels

As a long-time beer label collector I am bias to the benefits of collecting beer labels over any other form of beer memorabilia. After all, if you attempted to represent every brewery that has been in existence from the 1860’s to the present, only beer labels (and the bottles they resided on) would be common to the majority of breweries. The first beer can did not go until production until January of 1935, while many small breweries had limited budgets that curtailed their use of signs, trays and other forms of advertising. Even beer crowns (caps) did not top the bottle as we know them today until the 1890’s.

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The first beer labels were produced sometime during the 1860’s. They were very simple labels to distinguish one brewmaster’s pride and joy from that of a competitor. Although these labels may have been crude in design, and were painstakingly hand-applied, very little has changed during the 140+ year legacy of the beer label. Beer labels are still designed to attract the thirsty connoisseur. Whether it is a goat’s head depicted on a bock label, an age-dated promise of freshness or a brewery factory scene, the label manages to speak volumes about the product inside. There has always been an abundant array of beers to choose from, so it’s easy to see why breweries spent so much time and effort on their little 4″ by 3″ billboard. It was much more economical to design labels to attract beer drinkers than it was to design and produce a unique bottle.

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