Best Bottle Caps of 2010

Ok! So these are a year late, but I've finally cleaned up and mounted my "best of" collection from 2010.

This project started after I received a wall-mount bottle opener from my friend Jody. He was cleaning out his condo and found several beer steins he no longer had room for, and the opener was in the box. Luckily, I had room for both the steins and the opener in my kitchen. The opener installed nicely near my recycle bin and with the help of a random, loose magnet, it catches all the caps before they fall to the floor.

I had been collecting bottle caps for no apparent reason other than I had a magnetic knife rack that I wasn't using. Once I installed the opener on the wall, I got the idea to collect caps that I didn't already have - at least the ones I liked.

The current front-runners of the 2011 collection.

I printed out a template to which I glued the caps before putting them in a deep-set frame. I ran out of heavier card stock, so the standard piece of paper warped a bit as the glue dried. I'm planning to buy a thin sheet of tin or maybe just cardboard to adhere to the back in hopes of flattening it out, but it will suffice for now.

Back in 2010 I had managed to squeeze in more than enough caps and was perplexed as to how I was going to make them fit on a 8-1/2 x 11" sheet of paper. It was Jody who pointed out the obvious: "There's 24 bottles in a case of beer, why don't you just keep 24?" ...so out went the caps I knew I'd have no problem finding again! (really, there's many on there still that I could have thrown out)

The layout prior to framing

My personal favorites from 2010 are:

• Bell's Oberon; this cap always makes me think of summer!
• Hook & Ladder isn't a common find in Chicago - unless your house is actually on fire.
  
• Harpoon Brewery's cap is simple; it's old fashioned and rather distinctive.
  

The complete list can be found after the jump.

The end of 2011 is approaching, and I'm now faced with the problem of picking up SIX new beers with interesting caps! Suggestions will be most appreciated!

All buttoned up! (and me on my way!)

Jalapeño?

My new favorite curiosity? Asheville Brewing Company's "Fire Escape." It's their "Escape" filtered through jalapeño's! Delicious!


          [2011-12-16] I need to look back into this brew...
          "Escape" isn't listed as a beer brewed by Asheville
          Brewing Co, but they have a "Houdini!" - Which
          explains why I thought the un-filtered version was
          called "Escape Artist."

"Bottle Caps"

Apparently, if you collect enough bottle caps during Chicago Craft Beer Week, you earn extra prizes !

Nodding Head Brewery, Philly

Brewery visit #4, Nodding Head Brewery, Downtown Philadelphia, PA
I'm posting this largely because we made two pit-stops in Philly, and I took pictures. Don't get me wrong, the beer was ok; but not great. It was a lot cooler to be downtown Philly than in this dark, dive-y, brewpub.

The outside of the pub was inviting, the sign out front provided some explanation of the name.

But that could never explain how creepy the bobble-head doll collection and tap handles were. And if my memory serves me right (it doesn't, I'm setting up a joke), the beer on the left tasted a bit like shaving cream. Thanks, creepy barbershop quartet!

The brewery section didn't look bad... I just remember being upset that my beer tasted bad. ...and it's not 'entirely' the brewery's fault, I had a full belly and it was getting late.

And as became the theme of the trip, here's another disapproving look from Jami!

Dock Street Brewing Company!

After stopping for dinner with my Great Grandfather in New Jersey, we headed south, and since we were driving right through Philly, we googled "brewery" and found our way to Dock Street.

Once again, I didn't take any notes on this flight that I enjoyed... But I do remember that I wasn't impressed with the lighter beers. The porter and the stouts were much better.

And here's another picture of Jami giving me a disapproving look out front of another brewery:

Barrington Brewery (part 2)

I had too many pictures for one post, so I split them in half.


I have a lot of respect for. Brewpub that celebrates history:

I was impressed with how quaint the brewhouse is. Once again, I'm disappointed in myself that I didn't plan the trip more around available brewery tours.

That's really a cool mug collection.

And the start of my newest collection: Growlers.

Growler #1: Barrington Brewery

The Barrington Brewery (part 1)

After making our way to Thomaston CT, we spent a few fabulous days with Gene & Mo and the girls. ...though we only got to see Lizzie for a few hours one night.

So the story goes: I asked Gene to take Jami and I on some hikes. Visiting from Chicago, we really wanted to spend some time outdoors. One of Gene's favorites is Monument Mountain. Mo took the day off because she wanted to do some Christmas shopping for the girls and spend more time with us.
We pack in to the car, and after visiting the outlet mall, we go looking for a "Packie" near the trailhead. ("Packie" is NewEnglander for: package store). ....one of my favorite things about hiking with Gene is the inclusion of trail beverages. After a bit of a search, we loaded the backpacks with some Nukies and two dessert beers for the summit.

There's another story about Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne being wine-o buddies in some caves in the area. It is purported that from the summit of Monument Mountain, Melville found an inspiration in the form of a large rock formation that looked like a whale... You can wiki-wander for that story yourself; I digress.

I never did see Melville's inspiration on this trip to the summit. Clouds rolled in, and completely obscured the su... ...err, moon. Um, yeah, we took our sweet ass time finding trail sodas and enjoying our dessert beers at the summit that the sun set on us. Fearful of losing the little light we did have before the forecast-ed blizzard started, we picked up and headed back down to the car. Again, we took our time but this was largely because Mo had her knee repaired a few months earlier; the last thing we wanted was for her to injure herself. Thankfully, the closest we came to injury was when Gene was pointing out a safe spot to climb down.....and immediately wiped out! Hearing the crash of the bottle he had in his hand, I feared the worst, but there was no blood - just wounded pride. (and yes, we did clean up all the glass we could; all we left were footprints)

Despite our "reckless hiking" we had several good laughs on the trail back to the car, where we loaded back up... and headed for the next brewery on our impromptu tour!
The Barrington Brewery!

Situated in Great Barrington MA, this brewery boasts using solar power to brew it's tasty beverages.

They had an interesting beer list, and let you build flights from whatever was on the menu.

I'm kicking myself now for not keeping better note about what I tasted!

Something else I really liked, was their mug club. I fell in love with this idea at Sam Choy's Big Aloha Brewery in Honolulu, and I'm definitely going to put it to use when I open my own brewpub.

Maumee Bay? Holy Toledo!

This is another post that started way back in December when we went on vacation. Our first destination was Connecticut, and on the way, I convinced Jami we should turn the whole trip into a brewery tour! (I figured she'd like the idea anyway)

The first brewery we found was The Maumee Bay Brewing Company in Toledo, OH.

Being that I was on a blogging kick back in December (but didn't post until May!), Jami was just a little disappointed when she realized that I wasn't going to rush through every stop and that I was going to take pictures of everything.

Jami liked the steak salad because they put nearly a whole NY strip on the plate... And I enjoyed their take on the shepherd's pie, a.k.a. "Big Bowl of MEAT."

It's pretty tough eating well on the road... A belly full of meat n' potatoes doesn't help you stay awake behind the wheel.

Seeing how we decided to make this a brewery tour at the last minute, we didn't get the chance to take any actual tours of the breweries we visited (Jami's not interested in that part anyway). But as is the style of brewpubs today, we got to take a look at the gear:

Revisiting these photo's is giving me an itch to brew.

Bacon Jam!

It's no secret that I'm a bacontarian. I don't keep much bacon in the fridge, because it gets put to use right away.

And here's another fabulous use! SPREADABLE BACON!!!

well, it's not spreadable at this point, but it will be shortly!


After rendering the bacon in the frying pan, I re-used some of the bacon grease to saute some finely diced yellow onions, brown sugar, maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, and a cup of fresh brewed coffee (something else I happen to like quite a bit).

After the onions become translucent, I combine everything in the slow-cooker and let it sit on high for about four hours, or until it gets gooey.

I'll post photos of the finished product later... I appear to have lost them for now.