One of the most exciting moments for a breweriana collector is finding a bottle that proves its authenticity while also being rare. That’s what happened when I came across this beer steinie from the Storck Brewery in Slinger, Wisconsin.
The base markings tell the story. The bottle is embossed with a 6 on the left, a 7 on the right and 22 on the bottom. These numbers indicate it was produced by Owens-Illinois, with factory code 6 pointing to the Charleston, West Virginia, plant, which operated from 1929 to 1964. The single-digit 7 is a year code, and while Owens-Illinois reused these digits across decades, the bottle style and brewery timeline suggest the steinie was probably produced in 1947, in time for the 1948–53 label. The 22 is the mold cavity number.
The label adds another layer of interest. It is one of the final Storck labels, as the brewery shut down in 1958. When held up to the light, two vertical glue lines — one on each side — are clearly visible. The glue has a brown, aged appearance consistent with original machine-applied labels from the era, confirming the bottle and label were paired at the time of production.
What makes this bottle especially rare is that longtime Storck collectors have never seen this particular combination of bottle and label. Near the end of production, the brewery likely used whatever bottles and labels were available to finish runs, making surviving examples like this truly special.
Between the factory markings, the timeline-accurate label and the aged glue lines, there is no doubt this is a genuine, original late-era Storck bottle — a rare survivor from one of Wisconsin’s smaller breweries.
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Do you have any Storck beer memorabilia you are looking to sell? Contact me at contact@danthebeerman.com or reach out via Facebook.
