Breweriana is another way to appreciate beer
Troy Burtch’s collection of bottles, cans and labels chronicle Canadian history
There are many ways to describe beer: Thirst-quencher. Social lubricant.
You can also, according to Troy Burtch, add artistic inspiration and chronicler of Canadian history to the mix. Well, at least when it comes to the packaging.
Burtch estimates he has 400 items in his breweriana collection. That is the term collectors use to refer to the bottles, cans, trays, labels and other ephemera.
“Some of it is definitely stuff that people can look at and think ‘gee, that’s a nice piece of art,’ even if they don’t really like beer,” said Burtch, a marketing and sales staffer at Toronto’s Great Lakes Brew.
As for the historical aspect, it’s undeniable. Among the dozens of coasters in Burtch’s collection is a 1940s gem from Kitchener’s Blue Top Brewing Co. It has a Nazi officer being monitored by a fresh-faced Canadian soldier and the slogan “Remove the Shadow, Buy Victory Bonds.”
The oldest piece in Burtch’s collection is an intact wooden barrel from the 1890s. Back when it was more than a curio, it contained ale from Toronto’s Dominion Brewery, in the era before Canada’s flirtation with Prohibition.
“It’s pretty much intact. It’s just really cool to have,” said Burtch, who also has a few relics from the time immediately after Prohibition ended, including an LCBO price guide from 1929 and a beer ration book. That emblem of a bygone era still makes Burtch shake his head when he opens it.
“You had to carry one of those if you wanted to buy beer, and they had to fill it out at the store,” said Burtch.
While Burtch has a decent-sized collection, he’s still a relative newcomer to the breweriana game when compared to Larry Sherk.
“I’ve probably got about 15,000 crowns,” says Sherk, using the technical term for bottle caps. He also has thousands of cans, ashtrays, tap handles and even some brewery lithographs from the 1890s.
“The lithographs are probably the oldest things I’ve got,” says Sherk, who’s been collecting beer souvenirs since the 1960s. Four years ago, he donated his collection of 3,000 labels to the University of Toronto’s Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library. He still has thousands of cans at home, though he admits it’s getting harder to keep his collection complete.
“In the ’70s, there were maybe seven or eight new cans a year in Canada. Now, with all the craft breweries out there, there are probably 600 a year. It’s almost impossible to keep up,” said Sherk.