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 seven volume set of reference books on American labels.  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.

 

Each of the the first three volumes concentrate on a different region of the US. The last five each concentrate on a specific state. All 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 (Ohio's is a bit smaller), 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!

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

The 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
	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
	Volume 3: Central States, AR, IA, IN, MI, MN, MO
	Illinois
	New York
	Ohio
	Pennsylvania
	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. SOLD OUT

 

Bob's Contact Info:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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