The Museum Turns 8 Years Old, Part 3: Top 10 Taps Acquired This Year

"Top 10 Taps Acquired This Year" is a feature I debuted last year, and it turned out to be one of my most popular posts, so I thought I'd bring it back again this year. It's an opportunity to share some of my favorite acquisitions with my readers when you wouldn't see them otherwise for years. I've already profiled many great new acquisitions from partnerships with breweries this past year, such as Mission Springs, Labyrinth, Freigeist Bierkultur, Lake Monster, True Vine, Departed Souls, Karbach, Ghostface, South Beach, and Moon Under Water. Since those taps have already appeared on the site, in this post I'm going to focus on other taps I acquired that have not been profiled yet. Click through to see the taps, which have been presented in no particular order...

#1: Michelob Amber - Renard the Fox

I have been trying for over 10 years to acquire this tap but somehow I always missed out. I finally got one and feel that this is a great addition to the Museum. Renard was the mascot of Bevo, a near beer beverage brewed by Anheuser-Busch during Prohibition. Statues of Renard can still be found on A-B's bottling building at their main St. Louis plant.






#2: Calvary - Hatch Plug

Calvary was based out of Oxford, Connecticut back around 2010-2014. All their beers paid homage to the troops in Iraq, as the owner had been in the military for over 20 years and had deployed to Iraq. A "Hatch Plug" is a soldier too fat to fit through the opening in the top of a tank. The story that the beer is named after just begs to be told, and some day in the future it will be told on this site.





#3: Robinson's - Trooper

Co-founded by Bruce Dickinson, the lead singer of legendary British heavy metal band Iron Maiden, it only makes sense that the Robinson Brewery in England would name its beers after Iron Maiden songs and have labels featuring "Eddie", a character found on almost all of the band's album artwork over their musical career. And so it also makes sense that their tap features a likeness of Eddie. Dickinson was the keynote speaker at this year's Craft Brewing Conference, and although I wasn't able to meet him while I was there, this tap is a nice consolation.




#4: Orchard Thieves

Like Robinson's Trooper, this Orchard Thieves is not a U.S. brand. It is actually from Cork, Ireland and part of the Heineken UK portfolio. It's definitely not easy to find and photos don't really do it justice - this thing is bigger than most other taps.





#5: Gravity Brewlab

This tap comes in the silver color you see here as well as a gold version. Both are very difficult to obtain and command a lot of money on the secondary market - especially for an undamaged, new in the box condition - when you can find one.






#6: Turoni's IPA

Referred to as "Blue Eyed Moose", this tap is incredible, much larger and more impressive in person than a photo. The pizza restaurant and brewery is still around but this tap, like the beer, has been retired for about 5 years. Considering the size of the brewery, this is another tap that can be difficult - no, near impossible - to find.





#7: Big Rock - Dandilion

Probably my favorite acquisition of the year, this continues the trend of nearly impossible to find taps. Made by the same manufacturer responsible for the Big Rock Chinook and Canvasback taps, these were produced in limited numbers, and until this year I hadn't seen one since 2014. I've heard from a solid source that there are only 10 of these (or less) in existence.




#8: Muskoka - Legendary Spring Oddity

There are two variations of this tap...one has the name Legendary Oddity and the other has the name Spring Oddity. I'm not sure why there are two versions...perhaps one is older than the other. Both are really hard to find because this is a seasonal beer and it is from Ontario, Canada. The story from the label reads: "Each year the tempered thaw of Muskoka winter gives rise to new and strange creations. Legends date back to the 1800's when lumberjacks and fur traders took to the woods and encountered the mysterious culture and wildlife in the unknown Northern region."


#9: Bad Attitude - The Dude

I purchased a set of 4 Bad Attitude taps from a fellow collector who wanted to see them go to the Museum. Of the 4, this is my probably my favorite due to its depiction of "The Dude", a character from the movie The Big Lebowski. The taps are from a brewery in Stabio, Switzerland called Birrificio Ticinese. It's unclear if the beer is still around, because the Bad Attitude website is gone. The taps themselves were discontinued long ago, and I've heard there were some license issues but I don't know if that's true.



#10: Duke's - Blonde Ale

This is one of my latest acquisitions and I'm thrilled to get it. Duke's is a brewpub chain with 4 locations in Florida. The girl on the tap represents how the serving girls appear in the brewpub. There are 3 varieties of this tap: Blonde, Red and Brunette...I obtained both the Blonde and Red. And fitting the common theme that runs through the post, these are practically impossible to find due to the size of the brewpub.








That takes care of my list of top 10 acquisitions this year. In Part 4 I'll preview some upcoming tap profiles. After that will be the Tap Giveaway contest.