Do you collect things?
For some reason,
I’ve found myself collecting beer cans.
Craft beer made me do it,
when it made the can
into an art form.
Packaging is often artful,
but even as a blank canvas
it has a symbolic meaning.
The first craft beers came in brown bottles.
Basic, practical, universal, unbranded.
Everything mainstream beers weren’t.
Their sculpted, glittering, jewel-like bottles
exuded cool, refreshing and exclusive cues.
Stadium rock versus bootstrapping punk.
After a while, Craft adopted the can.
Also a basic, practical, universal format,
but employed by the megabrewers
as a cost-optimisation tool.
Craft brewers took a different tack.
They saw the can as a 3D canvas,
and painted it with
vibrant, unrestrained expressionism.
An outpouring
of energy, novelty, taste and joy.
Who wouldn’t want to collect
some of that?
After a decade and more of acquisitions,
every brewer has a craft portfolio.
I was surprised to encounter
this Keith Haring-esque beauty
on the island of Mallorca,
in 2019. BC. Before collecting.
But I found it again two days ago.
In a Belgian beer emporium,
in Cyprus,
in a brown bottle.
They didn’t have the can.
But the owner called her distributor,
who did.
“How many cases did I want?”
“Cases?” 😳😳
I bought a case,
to collect a can.
Worth every Euro!
So if anyone knows
where I can find the complete
Mikkeller Danish proverb series,
I’ll be there
at the pshhhhhttttt! of a ring-pull.
Why do you collect your thing?
#rewirement
#collecting
#beercan
EX.GM Reliance Petroleum
4moAmazing