Bob Kay's Beer Label Books

While they're not beer CANS, beer labels are a popular breweriana collectable.  The hobby's most renowned expert is longtime ABA, BCCA and NABA member Bob Kay.  He's put together a three volume set of reference books on American labels that will be published this year.   I own all three books recently and they're great!  Bob has been very helpful to me in the past, sending me scans of images for my ABA articles and for my various can histories (see examples on my Jax page) so I volunteered to advertise his books on my site.

UPDATE: Work is under way on the four remaining state books (IL, OH, PA, NY). These should be available in  2009.  Please contact Bob if you have contributions for these states. The books for Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New York will have about 3000 labels and Ohio's will be slightly smaller. The target date for publication is mid-2009 but this may get moved back.

Each of the the first three volumes concentrate on a different region of the US. All three have all the major label changes for the entire period from pre-Prohibition into 1950.  They do not include small changes, such as alcohol statements. 

The books are in color and spiral bound.  Each book has about 130 pages and 3000 labels, each with city, state, brewery or supplier, date period and a value estimate.  Labels are sorted geographically by state, city and brewery (when known).

If you collect labels of any type this is a great resource!

The three volumes are..

	Volume 1: States west of the Mississippi, AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, KS, MT, ND, NE, NM, NV, OK, OR, SD, TX, UT, WA, WY Released: March 2008
	Volume 2: Eastern and Southern States, AL, CT, DC,DE, FL, GA, KY, LA, MA, ME, MD, MS, NC, NH, NJ, RI, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV Released: June 2008
	Volume 3: Central States, AR, IA, IN, MI, MN, MO Released: August 2008.
	Wisconsin Beer Labels — The First 75 Years: A book compiled by Bob Kay, Tye Schwalbe, John Steiner, & Herb Page. A soft cover, spiral bound, full color book with 218 pages and 2500+ labels. Cost is $50 plus $4.95 S/H Direct inquiries or Order from: Tye Schwalbe 145 West Avenue South La Crosse, WI 54601 Phone 608-519-0451 email: tyesan2@charter.net

 

How Much?

$45 per book shipped to US destinations by Media Mail

$50 per book shipped to Canada by1^st Class Mail

$55 per book shipped to Europe, Australia, Asia by International Priority Mail

You can open an order form here (a small pdf), or email Bob at beerlabel@comcast.net.

Bob Kay's Beer Labels Website (opens new window)