By NOEL MURPHY
“THE man who fears to drink has no true soul.”
Wisdom can be gleaned from beer stein aphorisms for sure but get caught in the middle of Jack Leen’s 650-strong collection of steins and the threat of genius looms large.
And that’s not counting the steins Jack’s secreted away at home.
Tradies and handymen will be familiar with Jack’s collection, hanging from ceiling hooks in the office of Leens Building Supplies at North Geelong. It includes just about every species of hand-held beer receptacle imaginable – in glass, ceramic, pewter, silver, wood.
They’re emblazoned with brew and brewery names, hunters, stags, castles, dogs, maps, heraldry, risque figurines, forests, cottages and more.
“A few of them came from European and German friends who loved the amber fluid. They played it pretty hard and it’s a sort of tradition,” said Jack, who’s been amassing the collection over the past 30 years.
“They’d bring in their vessels from time to time and we got some from demolitions in our early (business) days and others from customers .
“It got a kind of momentum and there’s a mixture of novelty and genuine stuff here. There’s 650- plus, I smuggle the odd one home.
“The Leens are all collectors. In years to come, some of the steins will be a rare animal.”
The steins vary in size from midget varieties to full-bodied four-litre jobs. Headaches aplenty for anyone keen enough to try putting them all to good use.
Not Jack, though. He’s too sensible for that, he’ll stick to the curatorial role.
Besides, as he suggests, such a mission could spell disaster.
“I’m a bit of a one-pot screamer,” he laughed.
