CHICAGO — Notice anything out of place in this collection of "vintage" beer cans at a Grand Rapids, Mich. antique store?



Two Chicago beer cans included in a collection of "antique" and "vintage" beer cans — and priced for $5 each. [Chris Woods]

Former Chicagoan Chris Woods, now a Michigan resident, was visiting Eastown Antiques over the weekend when he spotted two familiar labels in a collection of "vintage," empty beer cans for sale.

Priced at $5 each, a tallboy of Half Acre's Daisy Cutter and a can of Revolution Brewing's Anti-Hero IPA were included on a shelf alongside actual vintage beer brands like Ortlieb's.

"I recognized the cans from living in Chicago for eight years and drinking both beers regularly — they're hard to miss in a lineup after living in the city that long," Woods said.

"Most craft drinkers are familiar with Grand Rapids and its craft scene, but as far as Michigan folks knowing Chicago brews, it seems to be few and far between. Everyone knows Goose [Island] and Three Floyds, but Revolution isn't really on the map" in Michigan, Woods said.

Lizzie Schiffman Tufano says the beers are a bit rare in Michigan:

Revolution's communications manager Kim Vavrick said it's no surprise Michigan residents aren't familiar with the brand, because the company doesn't distribute there, which may add some value to the empty cans.

"The appeal of the beer to a Michigan resident is inherent in that they cannot pick it up from a Michigan bar, or store, or restaurant," Vavrick said.

Dan Lovell, manager of Eastown Antiques, said the shop houses wares from 48 different sellers, and doesn't have any hard-and-fast rules about requiring items for sale to be "vintage."

"We don't have any technical restrictions, but we do try to keep an eye on it," Lovell said. "If someone brought in a brand new box of Crayola crayons with a Meijer's price tag on it, we would probably discourage that."

Revolution has been canning its beer since 2012, which Vavrick said she "wouldn't consider vintage per se," but said the cans might have some value as collectibles in Michigan, where they're hard to come by.

Still, Vavrick said Revolution's can, and the one from their neighbor brewery, Half Acre, clearly don't qualify as "antiques."

Most of the cans pictured alongside them on the shop's shelf are "pull tab cans," she said. "They don't produce those anymore, so I do consider those vintage."

Discontinued in the mid-1970s, pull tab cans are approaching the 50-year mark and could soon qualify as protected historic artifacts, archaeologist William Schroeder recently noted.

Gabriel Magliaro, president of Half Acre, said he considers his can's appearance in an out-of-state antique shop a "great success."

"The can itself having some sort of secondary market value as an object is an exciting achievement in a brewer's history," he said.

"We take great effort in making our cans look the best they can — let's hope generations to come admire the endless relevance of their design and the incredible integrity of the vessel."

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