Root Beer Mug Display

I found a couple matching cabinets at the Front Range Mercantile Fleamarket that I thought would be perfect for storing and displaying my Root Beer Mugs. The right hand cabinet contains almost all A&W mugs. The left hand cabinet contains a variety of other brands.

Now I wish I could find a couple more just like these.

The mugs to the back of the above picture are all Buckeye. The far right mug is much harder to find and says Buckeye Pure on the bottom. I have also seen a matching pitcher but they wanted $200 for it and that seemed a bit high.  Since I have not seen another one it might have been a good deal.

8 new Root Beers!

When I got home from my mission at the employment center today I had a package sitting on my front porch.

This was a much anticipated package. A while back I had ordered some new brands of root beer from The Root Beer Store in Lynnwood Washington.  Unfortunately their first shipment was returned before it was delivered because of the deep freeze we had. One of the bottles had broke and Fedex sent it back instead of delivering it. The store called me immediately and apologized and sent out a new shipment.

The packing of these bottles is really good, so had we not had temperatures well below zero it would have made it just fine. It is a little more expensive to order root beer this way, due to the shipping charges, but it is still a lot cheaper than driving from Colorado to Washington to buy some root beer you cannot get locally.

Now for the next week I get to try some great new brands.

Chicago Fountain Classic - with pure cane sugar

Druthers Black Cow Vanilla Cream Root Beer

Stevens Point Premium Root Beer - Cane Sugar and Wisconsin Honey

Foxon Park Draft Style Root Beer

III Dachshunds Root Beer - Pure Cane Sugar

HIPPO SIZE Jumbo Root Beer - Cane Sugar with extract of wintergreen

I am anxious to taste them all but will do the Black Cow first.

These two new brands were found at the new candy store that opened up in Longmont. Both are very good.

Empire Root Beer - with Artesian Spring water and pure cane sugar

Barrel Brothers Root Beer - with Quillaja extract

Exciting times!

Odd Ball Items

One of the fun things about collecting Root Beer advertising items is when you come across some of the odd items.  Here are some of the items I have recently found.

First up we have matchbooks covers.  I have no idea why you would use a matchbook to advertise root beer, but I guess so many people smoked back in the pre-50s that it was an effective way to get your brand in front of them.

I have found two wooden nickles that are for root beer.  These are not so easy to find. You really have to look at all of the detailed items when you go through a flea-market

or antique mall.

Here are a couple small stickers I found on eBay. They are not real brands but a knock off of existing brands. Obviously Hires and MUG.

This is a way cool item.  It is one of these 3D reflector pins. As you move it back and forth you see Dennis drinking his root beer. This was found in a freeway flea market in Kansas.

Many of the root beer brands made functional items like thermometers. Here is a Hires one I found in Grand Island Nebraska.

This is a bag that held around 100 new bottle caps.  I assume this is how they were shipped to the bottling company for use when bottling Hires Root Beer

This is a sandwich wrapper. I am not sure what came in it.

Here are some cool A&W straws for kids. I found these in a flea-market in Cheyenne Wyoming.

Lots of companies made bottle toppers.  They would stick them on one of the bottles in a six pack to draw people attention while they walked by.

I love these cones and little root beer items.  The cones were typically found at sports events.  You drank the root beer and then removed both ends and used it as a megaphone.

Multi-Soda Companies

Multi-Soda Companies

This blog shows a few of the multi-soda companies I have root beer from.  Since these companies made several varieties of soda in the same bottle, you have to find one with the bottle cap still in place to know it is root beer. So far I have found 5 of them.

Pleasure Time

Duffy's

Goody

Nesbitt

Nehi

I have no idea how many more brands did root beer in the same bottle style as other sodas. I love when I find one as it is fairly unique and adds another brand to my list. If you are aware of other brands, be sure to send me an email so I know what to start looking for.

Thanks for looking.  tom@floodeen.com

Root Beer Extract

Root Beer Extract

There was a time that in order to get root beer, you needed to buy extract and make your own.  I have done thisand am glad you can buy good root beer in a store.  Here are some of the root beer extract bottles I have been able to fine.  Generally they cost about $10.00 when you see them.  They are getting harder to find.

This is K.D. extract from Baltimore MD. The bottle has a cork in it but has no marking that would indicate the manufacture. Since the bottle came int he box, I am only assuming it is the correct bottle. It does have a raised Diamond on the bottom of the bottle.

This is a more recent Hires extract bottle. The bottle has a HIRES logo in pressed glass at the top.  I have three of these bottles. One of them has a bottle cap with the HIRES logo on it as well.

Thomsom & Taylor. The box is in very bad shape.The bottle say Thomson and Taylor on one side, SHAKE THOROUGHLY on one side, EXTRACT FOR MAKING ROOT BEER, on another side, and the last side has a pressed glass form of a glass of root beer with foam on the top and says IT FOAMS. This bottle used a cork.

Hannah COBB brand. This extract was manufactured by Montgomery Ward out of Chicago and Kansas City. Paper label with no other makings on the bottle. I paid $14.00.

Baker Extract Company out of Springfield Mass. Has the company name and location on one side. Says BAKER's INDIAN ROOT BEER EXTRACT on the other side.

John Lecroy & Sons out of Camden NJ.  Has a small corked bottle with no other markings. Lot's of writing on the box, including directions to make 80 glasses of root beer.

Grandma's Country Food.  This is new and can still be bought today.  Search for it and you will find it.  Very good extract and fairly inexpensive. $2.99 for a 4oz bottle. I use this extract to make root beer cookies. The bottle is plastic.

Watkins.  I got this at Walmart.  I do not like it as well as Grandma's. It is very light in color, almost clear, and seems to have a different after taste. I do not recommend this for making cookies.

Hires.  One of many versions of Hires extract bottle.  Two side have the logo and product name. One of the sides says HIRES DIVISION BEVERAGES INTERNATIONAL INC. EVANSTON, ILLINOIS.  The last side says CONTAINS WATER, CARAMEL COLOR, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR.

Hires.  This bottle is clear with no markings except for the word HIRES in pressed glass on the bottom.

Hires. This looks like many of the other extract bottles, but is much more scarce and worth a lot more money. The four sides say:

HIRES IMPROVED ROOT BEER

PHILADELPHIA PA

MAKES FIVE GALLONS OF A DELICIOUS DRINK

MANUFACTURED ONLY BY CHARLES E. HIRES

What makes this one so unique is the word ONLY. All of the rest of the bottles in this style say Manufactured By Charles E. Hires and leave out the word only.

Hires. These are the same as above without the word ONLY.

Hires. The four sides say:

HIRES HOUSEHOLD EXTRACT

PHILADELPHIA PA

MANUFACTURED BY THE CHARLES E. HIRES COMPANY

FOR HOME USE

HIRES.  Four of these are the same as the previous bottles. The one that is second to the left is different.

It says:

HIRES HOUSEHOLD EXTRACT

PHILADELPHIA PA

MANUFACTURED BY THE CHARLES E, HIRES COMPANY

FOR BREWING ROOT BEER AT HOME

That is my collection of root beer extract bottles. There are more than I initially thought. I am sure I am missing several others.  If you are aware of one I do not have, please drop me a note so I know what to start looking for.  Thanks for looking.  tom@floodeen.com

Frostie Root Beer

Frostie Root Beer 

This is the brand of root beer I grew up with in South Dakota. I can remember working in the hot sun and then buying a 10 cent 12oz Frostie from a vending machine. Cold, smooth. Great memories.  I hope you enjoy this collection. I would love to hear from anyone that has something I do not have.

These are all new bottles that you can buy today. Mostly paper labels with an occasional plastic. Still the same great taste.

These are some of the older bottles. Still pretty easy to find them in the collectible stores. You do need to look for variations in the bottles.  Notice the second from the left has FROSTIE on the neck, where the third from the left is basically the same bottle but missing the neck label. I love finding these sorts of variations.

The bottles to the left are from the 60's and are what I drank out of as a youth. The right ones are newer.  There are still plenty of these out there to be found.

This is a treasure. I found it at an antique mall in Aurora Oregon. I paid $40.00 for it. My wife thought I was crazy until we found one that had just sold on eBay for $140.00. It is thin Plastic and about 18 inches tall. The thermometer still works great.

These are all new. The only old bottle caps I have are still on the Frostie bottles. I have not yet found any of the old ones in my searching. It is on my list of things to find.

I love the odd items I have found. I have yet to see a large mug. These are all medium to small. I love the small paper cups and the little toy bottles.

I have had several people send me emails of items that have or have seen. Keep those emails coming.  Thanks for looking.

tom@floodeen.com

DAD's Root Beer Collectibles

This week I am high lighting my DAD's Root Beer collection.  I hope you enjoy looking at the various items.  If you happen to have a DAD's item that I do not have, I would love to see a picture of it so I know what I need to look for as I shop around.  As always, I love to hear from other Root Beer fans. You can contact me by emailing tom@floodeen.com

Here is my newest addition to my Dad's collection.  I got this at the Front Range Antique Mall in Fort Collins, Colorado.  The sign is 14" by 30". It is a great addition to my collection.

First up are a few of the different bottles.  These are pressed glass.  Not real common for DAD's.  The glass to the right I got at World Market for like $3.00.  The glass to the left is an older one and I paid $30.00 for it at a flea market in Colorado Springs. It is the only one I have ever seen.

Here are the four ACL "JUNIOR" bottles I have. Although sometimes they look the same, each of these is different in some way.  If you click on the picture if gets larger and you can see them better.  Generally this are around $6.00 at flea markets.

These three have paper labels. They are fairly new and can be found at various stores.  I generally go to World Market to buy DAD's. It is one of my favorite Root Beer's for making floats.

These are new ACL bottles.  ACL means the label is silk screened onto the bottle. Again these are fairly new and what you would find in a store today.

These are all 12oz ACL and are older bottles. Each one is different.Interesting that 12oz used to be "King Size". 

These are all 10oz ACL. The first second and fourth from the left are fairly new. The other 3 are older. 

The big guys. The left half gallon is old.  The two 1616oz ACL are fairly new.  The right two are plastic and were bought in the Dollar Store. I usually buy the large ones when the grand kids are coming over for floats.

I have not found a lot of DAD's mugs. The one to the right seemed to be used as a planter. The left one is plastic. I see a look of the clear one in flea markets for about $5.00.  The left glass one is a bit older and harder to find.

Here is a full six pack of 12oz bottles. I found it at a flea market in Florence Co. The bag of candy I got at a soda shop in Louisville co. I do not remember where I picked up the bag of marbles.

I got this crate for $40 at a flea market in Fort Collins.

I picked up his sign for $85.00 in the middle of Kansas at an Antique Shop along the freeway.

This thermometer came from a flea market in Iowa.  I think I paid $125.00

I do not remember where I got this sign or what I paid for it. I would likely pay around $85.00 for it.

This is a bottle topper.  They were stuck on one of the bottles in a six pack as an advertisement.

That is all the DAD's items I have in my collection, other than a few bottle caps. I hope you enjoyed looking at it. I am open to buying items as long as the shipping is not too expensive.