Tom's Root Beer Collection

Hello everyone.  It has been a while since I blogged.  I have added so much to my Root Beer collection that it is hard for me to even start.  I thought the best way to do it would be to display lots of pictures and add a few words at the bottom of some to point out things of interest. At least of interest to me.

I would like to thank my special friend, Vince Payne, from Iowa. I got many bottles and cans from him that I would have never found anywhere else.

In total I have about 150 mugs, 203 cans, 465 bottles and many many misc. items like Hires Baseball cards, old drug store advertising cards, bottle caps, 4 and 6 pack carriers, signs, candy, extract, glasses, boxes, syrup cans and dispensers, T-Shirts, Ball caps, Gallon Jugs, Brewery Growlers and over 50 magazine advertisements.

So here goes, enjoy the pictures.

Older Bottle Case

I keep the older and more precious items here. The below two pictures give you close-ups of the contents.

My oldest bottle is a Hires from pre-1890 Lots of bottles from the 20's 30's 40's and 50's

MUGS

I now have over 150 different root beer mugs. I had to add some shelves to the wall because I outgrew the cabinets.  I think I need to add more shelves.

The cabinet on the right is all A&W mugs of different sizes and logo's. The cabinet on the left and the shelves are all other brands.

The pitcher and 6 mugs at the back all say Buckeye Pure on the bottom.

Barrel Dispenser

Every collection needs one of these.  They are not cheap but if you look hard enough you will find one that is affordable.

The Root Beer Room

Whenever people come to the house that know us they always ask to see the Root Beer Room. Of course I am more than happy to show it to them.  It is hard to get the proper effect of the room through a camera lens. The first picture is taken from the door into the room.  The I just walked around the room and took a bunch of pictures.

These two dispensers were both found in the Denver area. They were not cheap.  Of course my wife thinks I am crazy.

The A&W cooler is really cool.  I used it at our last Church Root Beer gathering. It has a handy drain in the back so once the ice melts you can just set it in a bath tub and let it drain. Very handy for basements

The Closet

I promised my wife I would only buy what I could display. So of course I have to keep adding display space. The Root Beer Room has a walk-in closet so I built some shelves and added more space.

I know there are many more platters, but these are the only ones I have seen and could afford to buy.

Thanks for viewing the blog.  Share it with your friends.  Let me know what you think. I get emails from people every week with Root Beer questions because they found my blog.  The more that view it the higher it shows up on the google search results.

And yes I do accept root beer gifts.

Iowa Friends are the best!

My friend Vince Payne from Iowa, sent me a package of joy today.  Here are the fun things I received from him. I am looking forward to drinking the Texas Root Beer.  THe rest are already proudly displayed in my Root Beer Room.

Thanks Vince.

Albuquerque and Farmington Finds

I recently made a trip to Farmington and Albuquerque New Mexico to visit friends and family.  Of course I could no go there and not check out the antique shops. The first picture below shows the entire cache of treasures I found. I am pretty excited about some of them.

All of the below glasses were found at a shop in the 12,000 block of Central in Albuquerque. 

I have a lot of A&W mugs, but this one has a Snoopy on the back. As near as I can tell the Snoopy is original to the making of the mug.

The below picture shows looking into the plastic mug.  It says HIRES int he middles and Always Refreshing To You .The little child's mug is Little Skipper Root Beer. I got it in a shop in Durango.

More mugs.  

These is a small shop about 14 miles east of Durango. That is where I found this frosted Hires mug.  Very cool.

A new ceramic mug to add to my others.

First Ted's Root Beer bottle I have ever seen. It is dated 1959. The Triple XXX1953 and the Dr Swett's is 1934.  Great find.

This little thermometer was in a shop in Durango. It is a bit rough but looks great on my wall.

Wright Root Beer

I recently got an email from Alan Wright asking me about Wright Root Beer.  Prior to this email I had not heard of it. There is not a lot of information on the internet about it.  I asked my friend in Iowa, Vince Payne about it and he had a couple bottles. He sent me the below picture.

I forwarded this picture to Alan. Alan then sent me a couple pictures of the Wright Root Beer collection he has been able to put together,  It is very impressive. Check out the below pictures.  If you have any questions about Wright Root Beer, or would like to talk to Alan about his collection, you can email him at acwright@comcast.net

Thanks Alan for sharing what you have found.  Now I will keep a sharper eye open and see what I can find.  Wright Root Beer comes from the Louisiana area. 

An Iowa Root Beer Connection

Not long ago I received an email from a fellow root beer collector in central Iowa, Vince Payne.  He has every bit as big a collection as I have.  He is the first true Root Beer collector, other than myself, that I have met.

Over the holidays he and his wife came out to the Denver area and I had him come up for a visit and a tour. It was a great 2 hours of fun.  He left with a few items I had that he did not. Well yesterday I got a package from him with some treasures in it that I did not have.

It is really fun to have found another collector and be able to share a few items with each other.  Here are some of the things he sent me.

 If you check out my post on MUGS you will see I have a pretty large collection. So getting the above three new ones is a treat.  Now I am out of shelf space and will have to add another one

These four cans put my can collection at 160 different cans.

I already have a small keg of 1919 Root Beer so getting this jug and the above mug is a nice addition.

I also got a tiny bottle of Root Beer flavoring and a couple Richardson bottles caps I did not have.  Thanks Vince.

If there are any other root beer collectors out there, please send me a note. I can hardly wait until I go east again so I can stop and see what Vince has.

A&W Coolness

Do I have the best wife ever or what. Not only does she put up with my sickness about root beer, she finds me way cool things like this A&W cooler in Logan, Utah.

We tell people we went to Logan to see a good friend, but my motivation was to get some Root Beer Float Milk from Gossner Foods. Very good.

While in Logan we saw an Antique Mall and my wife pointed out the cooler to me.  She even negotiated a lower price for it. I love my wife!

The shelf life on this Root Beer Float Milk is about 10 months. It is also quite inexpensive. The main thing is that when it is cold, WOW! it is like drinking the left overs of a root beer float after the ice cream is all melted. Next time I will buy a case of it.

But here is my new pride and joy. I can hardly wait for the next Church Root Beer Social to show it off. When I told my wife what I think it is worth she said I should sell it.  HA HA! Not a chance.