Brew's clues

Polson beer historian assembles impressive collection of artifacts

After collecting beer memorabilia for more than four decades, Steve "Bubs' Lozar has discovered one of the best places to find old bottles: outhouses.

"I've dug lots of bottles out of old outhouses," the Polson beer historian said. "A lot of times grandpa would sit on the two-seater, drinking a beer so grandma didn't find out."

Disposing of the evidence for these closet drinkers of yore was as easy as chucking the empty bottles down the hole.

Yes, beer memorabilia lurks in some unsavory places, but Lozar has gone the distance to assemble one of the most complete beer museums in Montana. His collection fills the second floor of his family silk-screening business, Total Screen Design, at 40735 Montana 35 in Polson. And for those willing to spend the time, Lozar will take visitors on a journey back in time to the late 1800s, when pioneers put their lips to the state's first brews.

"It's an absolute passion," he said.

And it's in his blood.

Lozar's great-grandfather, Josef Lozar, a Slovenian immigrant, came to East Helena in the early 1890s, trading a beer-drinking-and-mining culture in one country for another. He established his saloon in a stone building in East Helena that was the town's oldest building until it was torn down eight years ago.

Steve Lozar salvaged rock, a window and a door from the historic structure and has incorporated them into his museum displays. He also recovered pieces of the old wooden back bar and front bar that had accommodated his great-grandfather's patrons.

"It was smashed. The back bar was crushed, but my cousin put it back together," he recalled.

The stone saloon had a colorful history. Lozar's great-grandfather wagered the business and lost it in a card game in 1910, then got it back two years later when the owner didn't pay the taxes. In 1918 Lozar's grandfather took over the business until Prohibition shut it down in 1920.

Beer drinking remained a part of the Lozar family's daily life, though. One of Lozar's favorite photographs shows four generations of the family standing in front of his grandfather's home, all drinking Great Falls Select beer.

"When we were little kids, supper was very formal, and there would be bottles of beer, even for the little kids," he recalled.

During Prohibition, Lozar's grandfather moved to Ronan to work on an irrigation project and married an American Indian. Lozar's mother also was Indian, and today he represents the Polson district for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

Lozar, 59, also is the first American Indian to serve on the Montana Historical Society board of trustees. He taught anthropology at Salish Kootenai College for 28 years.

RESEARCHING brewing history and collecting beer artifacts has remained a constant in Lozar's life.

"I'm far more interested in history than in possessions, but I love to get stuff," he said.

Lozar has a few favorites among his vast collection. At the top of the list is a unique cardboard whistle advertising Montana Brewing Co.'s My Favorite Beer, with the inscription "Blow loud and clear, My Favorite Beer is here."

"Can you imagine all those people in the bar blowing their whistles at the same time," he said with a laugh, then blew on the whistle that still emits a high-pitched buzz.

Another odd artifact is a book of matches advertising Butte Special. Inside, every match is shaped like a beer bottle. A cone-top Kessler can also is dear to him. Beer was first canned in 1933, and the cone-top designed allowed brewing companies to easily retrofit their equipment to accommodate the cans. In the 1950s, the Peli-Can Co. turned discarded beer cans into cigarette lights and sold them back to breweries, Lozar said.

The Peli-Can jingle still makes him laugh: "More lights in a single can than a lightning bug on his honeymoon."

Lozar has more than 500 antique beer bottles in his collection, some with the beer still in them. Suffice to say it wouldn't taste as good as wine aged that long.

"Oh, it would actually be dreadful, with the yeast and the sediment in there," he said.

There are whimsical items in the display cases: a baby spoon with a beer opener on the other end and tiny Kessler-brand dishes used in saloons for patrons to dip their hard-boiled eggs in salt. An antique belt buckle doubled as a beer keg tapper.

Beer companies were among the biggest early-day advertisers. Marketing trinkets - "go-withs," Lozar calls them - were plentiful: items such as ash trays, serving trays, key chains, earrings, tie tacks, sewing kits, calendars and even 45-rpm records so patrons could hum along with their favorite beer tunes.

Lozar has reams of documentation about Montana's brewing history, including early 1900s newspaper advertisements declaring the health benefits of beer. One ad, in a 1911 edition of the Kalispell Times, pitched Kalispell Malting & Brewing Co.'s Best Beer to "the tired housewife and mother."

"Better than tea and more tasty, it refreshes, strengthens and nourishes, gives zest to life, aids in storing up what suckling children need…" the newspaper ad declares.

The same Kalispell company asked in a 1907 Flathead Herald-Journal ad: "Do you want a narcotic (coffee) or a food (beer)?" Another ad bore the headline "Typhoid Lurks in Impure Water," imploring people to drink Best Beer because its water has been boiled for hours, 'so there is no possible chance of there being germ life in it."

Luckily, Lozar's favorite Montana beer these days is just down the street - Glacier Brewing Co. at 10th and Main in Polson.

"They brew fantastic beer, in the tradition of the public beer house," he said. "It's not like a bar. It's one of those [microbreweries' that still has a wonderful feeling."

His favorite brew? Glacier Brewing Co.'s Slurry Bomber Stout.

Lozar's beer museum is open to the public 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. During the summer months it's also open on weekends. Call 883-5662 for further information.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com