2 Of My Favorites: Beer And Wine

Washington State revenue stamps, one for 2 dozen small 11 oz bottles of beer, and a 1/2 gallon of wine. At one time or another I have consumed both, but not all at once.

Eleven ounce containers of beer! Idaho also used case stamps to show that the taxes on beer were paid and they also issued stamps for cases of 11 ounce containers of beer. The perfin cancel on the Washington beer case stamp reveals that the user was Sheridan Brewing of Wyoming. Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana also used case stamps. And none of these show stamps for 11 ounce containers. So the 11 ounce container is a northwest regional phenomenon. We find other such differences in the 1930's before the era when the Budweisers and Millers were marketed nationally (and eventually brewed to the same recipe in more than one location). I suspect that the beer label collectors could also tell us a lot more about such local differences. Interestingly, with microbreweries establishing themselves we are returning to an era when local differences once again are arising and being savored.

From the website brewerygems.com/olympia.htm to explain an 11 oz. bottle (since most beer is sold in 12 oz. bottles and cans):

In December of 1935, Olympia introduced a new bottle - the "stubby." This was a squat, no-deposit, no-return, 11 oz. bottle. It had the same capacity as the long neck but took up less room in the home refrigerator, and six-packs stacked nicely in grocery displays. Olympia was the first west coast brewery to adopt this style packaging, and with the added advantage of being a "no return" bottle there was no deposit required. This new package was quickly adopted by the majority of the breweries.

Tom,

That is very interesting about Olympia. The image that started this thread is cancelled in 1934 by Sheridan. Olympia was simply copycatting Sheridan and the evidence suggests that Olympia was not the originator of the 11 ounce stubby..

Folks, thanks for the information. In my younger days I consumed many Oly stubbies!

Love the arithmetic on these two Minnesota revenues:

A lovely innovation of the case tax stamps in Minnesota circa 1951. Later they got rid of the details and had generic case stamps that hid the actual amount of tax.