seadog brewing

A while back, I mentioned that Crowncap Kidd had sent me a pretty sweet haul of new bottle caps. I previewed a few of them early on, but have yet to really dive into the awesome crowns I received.

This changes now!

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to have another delicious dinner at Luke's Lobster, this time in the one on the Upper West Side, before attending a play in Central Park (gotta love NYC in the summer).

Luke's Lobster prides itself on getting fresh Maine lobster and providing local brews (both soda and beer). I'm sorry to say that I did not get the Sea Dog bottle cap at Luke's but it seems like it would be a good place to find it. There were a few other beers, but we were in a bit of a rush and ended up not having time to really sit down and enjoy a brew, so we stuck with soda for our beverage of choice.

I will also direct readers to the history page, where not only does it tell the story of Sea Dog, but ALSO talks about Barney the Dog. I love it when there really is a dog associated with the brewery.

I love this bottle cap! It's simple, and although it doesn't really tell the drinker what they are having, it sticks with the animal theme that I enjoy. However, it would be pretty cool if they stuck their dog with the rain hat on the bottle cap. Didn't I already go over this last week with Shock Top? Take advantage of your mascots when you can!

lost opportunities

I spend a lot of time on this blog discussing the general awesomeness of bottle caps/crowns.  Even though last week garnered two new Hall of Fame entries, I want to bring to your attention, dear readers, to a rather sad reality in the land of bottle caps.  There are many lost opportunities for bottle cap designs.

I'm looking right at you, companies that make "fair trade" bottle caps or "twist off" bottle caps or *gasp* entirely plain bottle caps.

A few months ago, on a trip to Chicago, I had a chance to try Green River Soda. Fluorescent green and overly sweet, this soda has just a plain, green bottle cap. Why not snazz it up a bit with...I don't know, maybe a graphic of a river? Does it really cost that much to stamp 2 squiggly lines on there?

Another example was when I was at the delicious Luke's Lobster restaurant. They serve Maine Root Soda. Also delicious! But what kind of bottle cap do they have? A boring fair trade crown. How on earth do you expect me to remember what your soda is? Honestly, I had to look up Luke's Lobster and check the menu to remind myself what I had to drink there! And I can't even tell you how disappointing it is to go into a bodega, see a new soda I've never tried before, check the cap, and discover that it's a fair trade crown or, even worse, blank.

While ordering some sodas from Old52.com, I had a great DM conversation on Twitter about what to order, but quite a few of the sodas that had a) great names and b) fun labels were scant to offer amazing bottle caps. Dog & Suds, Pig Iron and Bulldog -- you have awesome names. Get awesome bottle caps, please.  Do you realize that you lost sales because of this?

Have you ever not purchased a beverage because of the bottle cap?