PUYALLUP, Wash. — Cats, castles, dogs and drinking. Every stein tells a story.
Some of them, strange.
"As you can see there's a gnome, riding on a frog," explained Alain Steenbeeke, showing off a blue and white stein in his collection, which numbers over 600. He's been collecting ever since his mom got him one for Christmas in 1982.
"It just grew from there," said Steenbeeke, who hosts meetings of Pacific Stein Sammler, an organization devoted to collecting these drinking mugs, at his Puyallup home.
"It's amazing the variety of steins that are out there. They're so interesting, and it's not easy to make them."
Steenbeeke has steins commissioned by castle owners.
Regimental steins that belonged to soldiers.
Animal steins - some with double meaning.
"The German word for cat also means hangover. So, if you see a cat depicted on a stein it means watch out, if you drink too much you're gonna get a hangover," he said. "You have monkey steins and monkeys are wild and crazy. And what happens when you drink too much, you go wild and crazy."
His most valuable stein? A 4 liter giant by the German stein making company Mettlach worth 2 thousand dollars - maybe because of the story it tells. There's a knight hoisting kegs up to a window the castle. Another window has a hand protruding from it, holding a stein.
"But what cracks me up is that at the top, you see this woman looking down in dismay, going 'Oh there's too much partying going on!'" laughed Steenbeeke.
But Steenbeeke's favorite stein is a different one. His heart belongs to one shaped like a woman, born around 1890.
"It's just beautifully made. And you know, it's not one that you drink out of, but it's just amazingly made," he said, showing how her long hair formed the handle, turning a mere drinking mug into an antique work of art.
No two steins are alike - but most of them do have one thing in common.
"If you open up these steins and you smell inside of them, you still smell it," he said. "You can still smell the old beer in there.”
And despite the many depictions of drink and debauchery on the collection, these stein's working days are behind them. They make their owner happy - without the beer.
“I have so many steins, but I've only drunk out of maybe five of them. they're mostly for show. They're mostly for me to sit here and enjoy," Steenbeeke said.
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