NEWS

For some collectors, it's all about the beer cans

Kaylin Parker
Northwest Florida Daily News
This Spearman beer can was one of many featured at Saturday's trade show at O'Quigley's in Destin. It boasts a rare metallic green paint. [KAYLIN PARKER/DAILY NEWS]

DESTIN — For some, collecting beer cans is a hobby that once you start, you can’t stop.

For others, collecting beer cans is more than a hobby; it’s about the art, the history and the story.

Hundreds of foreign and domestic cans and "brewmania" items such as beer taps and neon signs were on display Saturday at a trade show in the back room of O’Quigley’s in Destin.

The trade show was hosted for the third year in a row by the local Brewery Collectibles Club of America chapter called the Spearman chapter, named after the Spearman Brewing Company in Pensacola. The brewery shut down 55 years ago and moved out of the Spearman Center building, which now houses a law firm and other offices.

Chapter member and several visitors studied the cans and other items. Some came to purchase, some came to trade and some, like Brewery Collectibles Club of America President Cheryl Boyles, came for the friendship.

"You have friends in every single state," Boyles said of being a member.

Stephen Struck, a member of the local chapter, said he enjoys collecting 12-ounce domestic cans and anything related to Spearman.

"What really got me excited about collecting beer cans from the 1930s and 1940s was the art," Struck said. "Some of the labels are hard to find. They spent a lot of money on their art. They're gorgeous cans."

Mike Moon, the chapter's president, held a green metallic-painted Spearman Brewery can the likes of which is hard to come by.

"That's like a $350, $400 can," Stuck said.

Moon also has items in his personal collection from the Prohibition era when alcohol was banned nationwide and many breweries failed.

The Brewery Collectibles Club of America, which is approaching its 50th anniversary in 2020, has more than 3,000 members and hosts trade shows around the country throughout the year.