11oz KOL from Silver Springs - Who needs one or a case?

[Carl S]

Back in 1975-76, Premium Bill and other Rainier Chapter members descended on the shuttered Silver Springs brewery in Tacoma. This is the brewery that produced Western Style, Dunkel Brau, Brown Derby, Durst, Viking, a couple of bottle only brands, and KOL. I don't know what all they found - other than pallets of ready to be filled 11oz KOL cans. The brewery has since been knocked down and covered by roads.

Premium Bill hauled all the KOL's out. Most went in to his vast storage lockers. Quite a few were sent out for lidding. (Some folks even punched the new lids to make them look like they had contained beer.) These KOL's became a staple can at every NW show and CANvention since that time. I have no doubt that a KOL has been continuously listed on eBay since the 90's. If anyone needs one, let me know. I can hook you up :)

The rarest 11oz KOL's from Tacoma are the two dumpers Scott Field found in Oregon. That proves the KOL did hold beer for a short time.

The ubiquitous 11oz KOL by Silver Springs, Tacoma

KOL Silver Springs 11oz Tacoma.JPG (28.4 KiB) Viewed 6104 times

[Longhorn Mike]

A local Dallas collector by the name of Bob Carr (who has sinced passed on) had a similar experience while traveling through Utah. He found himself inside of the closed down Becker brewery in Ogden. He removed a U-Haul load of unfilled Beckers 11oz cans that can still be easily obtained.

Also, another collector who lives in Texas (not active anymore) while as a teenager living in Minnesota, got into the Duluth brewery with his Dad. They removed thousands of Royal 58 can that were never filled. The cans were zips without bottoms. They are still available as well, but their value has begun to rise recently.

- Mike

[Daev Larrazolo]

I'd like to see the pic of the dumper KOL

[Scott]

I'd like to see the pic of the dumper KOL

Photo of the front of the can and a blurry zoom of the mandatory where you can see it's from Tacoma. Ed actually found this one when we were on a trip in Eastern Oregon. I was also with Pokey on Mt. Hood when he turfed one up about ten years ago. That one was totally wasted and not saved for documentation purposes.

If Bill had not gone and spoiled it, this would be an extremely rare can.

[Daev Larrazolo]

How many did Bill find? That's probably one of the cans that's worth more as a dumper than mint.

[Randy Karasek]

I remember getting a Kol as part of the "Cans of the Month" club back in the 70's.

[Daev Larrazolo]

Randy I must have also received one because I only had a few flats and that was one of them the other was a Jet and a Gold Brau

[iggyks]

Talked to some guys at an Abilene, Ks show that got into the Storz brewery and found a (small?) quantity of unfilled Storz-ette 8ozers. Mine with no bottom lid may well have come from that find.

[Rockbob]

I had a Storzette with a new bottom installed. Probably from the same find as well.

[Jeff]

I was talking with someone several years ago at a Cincinnati show and he laid claim to being the one who went to the Little Switzerland Brewery warehouse after that brewery had closed. He must have hauled out cases and cases of unfilled cans because you constantly see air filled West Virginia and Charge cans around here and probably everywhere else. It kinda kills me because I actually dumped that area as a kid with my dad. I know it's an obscurity but I'm kinda proud that I have real dumper West Virginia and Charge tabs on my shelf.