Enter the world of Olde Frothingslosh, where beer cans are worth more than (liquid) gold

“Olde Frothingslosh: the pale stale ale with the foam on the bottom!” Coined by KDKA radio personality Rege Cordic in 1953 as a joke, the name and slogan of this imaginary beer brand did not retain its hypothetical status for long. The following year, the Pittsburgh Brewing Company actually produced a beer called Olde Frothingslosh, and the cans quickly became a favorite among collectors. Fast forward to 1972, and the Olde Frothingslosh Club was born. Established by a group of western Pennsylvania diehard beer can collectors, the group expanded over the decades to include anyone who was a passionate collector of breweriana: anything related to beer deemed to be collectible, from cans to advertising signs, tap handles, bottles, even old brewery invoices and more. Basically, if it has a brewery name or logo on it, and it was made by a defunct or any active brewery, there’s a good chance that someone out there will try to acquire it. Though there have been others in the past, Olde Frothingslosh is currently the only breweriana club in Pittsburgh. The club is an affiliate of three national organizations: the American Breweriana Association (ABA), the Brewery Collectors Club of America (BCCA), and the National Association of Breweriana Advertising (NABA). “Collecting took off in the mid-1970s and continued into the 1980s, and then sporadically thereafter,” says club secretary Todd Raible. Raible believes that the beer collecting heyday was in the 1980s, though he has seen a revival of interest in the hobby since COVID — including his own. “I pulled [my collection] down from the attic in 2020, and it has been a whirlwind since then,” he tells Pittsburgh City Paper . Tracy Wallace’s personal collection of vintage beer merchandise in Homestead Credit: Mars Johnson Raible is as much a collector of stories as he is of beer cans. The hobby started for him in the 1970s when he was walking around the woods by his old