Through a Glass, Smartly

February 4, 2012 11:03 AM

Through a Glass, Smartly Larry Sherk is one of the world's foremost brewerianists, a collector of beer stuff who over 40 years has amassed the country's second-largest private collection of beer labels (about 3,000), many of which date to the late 1800s.

Last year, in a desperate attempt to clear some space in his house, Sherk donated the labels to the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library at the University of Toronto. You can see many of the labels on flickr, here, here, and here.

posted by modernnomad (4 comments total)

Oh wow, this is cool. A co-worker brought in his wife's nephew's grandpa's collection of labels the other day. I took photos of the whole 300-label collection. THey're mostly from the 30s, but some really neat Columbian pieces. Anyway, it's interesting to see more labels of a slightly older vintage.
posted by notsnot at 11:07 AM on February 4, 2012

What amazes me is how mind-buggeringly strong these standard beers were. A quart of 8% was normal.
posted by scruss at 1:16 PM on February 4, 2012

True, beers weren't as standardized as they are today, but note that those labels were written using alcohol proof.
posted by smorange at 4:15 PM on February 4, 2012

Oooh, I am slow. So 4%. Hmm.
posted by scruss at 2:00 PM on February 9, 2012