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SHOOTING THE (LAKE) BREEZE

Shooting the (Lake) Breeze - Beers to you: Early years of beer can collecting craze ran through Lake Geneva, Walworth County

Early years of beer can collecting craze ran through Lake Geneva, Walworth County

Eric Johnson
Jun 17, 2022
Jun 17, 2022
7 min to read

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"Rusty Gold" at the Badger Bunch 50th anniversary spring show

“Rusty Gold” on sale at the golden 50th anniversary spring beer and brewery advertising show sponsored by Badger Bunch at Delafield Brewhaus. The 100-member Badger Bunch club, founded in 1972, is the pioneering charter club of the Beer Can Collectors Club of America (BCCA), today’s Brewery Collectibles Club of America. In the 1950s, Paul Bunyan Beer was brewed by Wisconsin Brewing Co. in Waukesha and at the former Van Merritt brewery in Burlington.

Eric Johnson

BCCA president Don Hardy and Badger Bunch president Mike Scheffler

Many tweens and teens of the 1970s got caught up in the beer can collecting fad and stuck with the hobby through its ups and downs over the decades. Don Hardy (left) of Westmont, Ill., a 47-year member of the Brewery Collectibles Club of America (BBCA) and 2022 BBCA president, was among the hundreds of attendees at the recent 50th anniversary spring beer and brewery adverting show at Delafield sponsored by Milwaukee’s 100-member Badger Bunch, the 1972 charter club of the BCCA, then known as the Beer Can Collectors of America. At right is Badger Bunch president Mike Scheffler of Waterford in Racine County, who started collecting in 1969 when he was six. Fifty years ago, the BCCA held its second national CANvention in 1972 at the Playboy Club Hotel in Lake Geneva.

Eric Johnson

Milwaukee's Pabst Brewing Co. pioneered canned beer in 1935

While canned beer is a familiar sight today, home beer consumption was exclusively the dominion of bottles until American Can Company’s revolutionary creation of its “keglined” steel beer can, rolled out nationally in June 1935 by Milwaukee-based Pabst Brewing Co. By the end of the year, 36 U.S. breweries were canning beer, including Milwaukee-based competitors Schlitz and Blatz. Later, Milwaukee-based regional brewer Gettelman began canning beer as well. By 1959, canned beer outsold bottled beer—and still does. Pictured are beer cans on display for show recently at the 50th anniversary spring beer and brewery collectibles show sponsored at Delafield Brewhaus by Badger Bunch, the charter club of the Brewery Collectibles Club of America (BCCA).

Eric Johnson

Badger Bunch 50th anniversay spring beer and brewery collectibles show at Delafield Brewhaus

Hundreds of beer can collecting and breweriana enthusiasts made their way to Delafield Brewhaus earlier this spring to attend the 50th anniversary beer and brewery collectibles show and sale sponsored by the 100-member Badger Bunch, a Milwaukee-based charter club of the Brewery Collectibles Club of American (BCCA), known before 2003 as the Beer Can Collectors of America. A fad hobby of the 1970s and early 1980s, beer can collecting endures, since expanded into a wide range of breweriana collectibles. Longtime hobbyists are often drawn together by the convivial gemutlichkeit of the friendships formed at such gatherings.

Eric Johnson

Attendees at the 50th anniversary spring beer and brewery collectibles show and sale sponsored by Badger Bunch

Hundreds of beer can collecting and breweriana enthusiasts made their way to Delafield Brewhaus earlier this spring to attend the 50th anniversary beer and brewery collectibles show and sale sponsored by the 100-member Badger Bunch, a Milwaukee-based charter club of the Brewery Collectibles Club of American (BCCA), known before 2003 as the Beer Can Collectors of America. A fad hobby of the 1970s and early 1980s, beer can collecting endures, since expanded into a wide range of breweriana collectibles. Longtime hobbyists are often drawn together by the convivial gemutlichkeit of the friendships formed at such gatherings.

Eric Johnson

Eric Johnson

“Simon took the sack out and dumped at least twenty cans on the grass — half of them cone-tops! They could have been diamonds, they were so beautiful … As far as I could tell, the conies were all from Minnesota. Four or five of them were Grain Belt. There was a Royal Bohemian, a Regal and the rest were Rex. I knew the books listed them all at around 20-to-1. Pure gold. They’d gotten some rusty old pop-tops, too, worth something, but nothing like those cone-tops.” —“Harvey, the Beer Can King”, Jamie Marie Gilson, 1978.

Eric Johnson

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