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Vice Blog

The World's Biggest 40oz Collection

I thought I drank a lot of 40s until I stumbled across 40ozmaltliquor.com, a web site devoted to the collection, cataloging, and consumption of 40 ounce bottles of malt liquor and beer. It was started by a guy named Bruz who lives in New Jersey and has a collection of over 800 different types of 40s, making it the largest in the world. Bruz posts reviews of 40s, videos of himself drinking 40s, and runs the site's forum, where hundreds of 40 enthusiasts (the "40oz Crew") have what are probably the most in-depth discussions of malt liquor you'll find on the internet. After poking around on his site for a little while I was in awe of Bruz's obsession, so, I started emailing him and found he signs his emails "Keep Swillin.'" Which is awesome.

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Vice: Congrats on hitting the 800 bottle mark last month. How do you store your 40s? I'm picturing like, an entire room devoted to 40 bottles.
Bruz: I currently have 809 different 40s ("40s" includes 45s and 64s of brands that were also produced in 40oz size) and the amount of room they take up is insane. They're currently all stored in my old bedroom at my parent's house, which my mom is thrilled about. There's just no room in my apartment for them. They're currently lining many shelves several rows deep each, with some overflow in empty cases on the floor.

How did you start collecting 40s in the first place?
I started collecting 40s during my junior year at Rutgers U, with my roommate, Beerface. We had a big gap between the top of the kitchen cabinets and the ceiling in our apartment, so we started lining it with different 40s. It was fun seeing what new 40s you could find the harder you looked, and we also went on a lot of road trips during that time, so we'd be on the lookout then as well.

I figure you've probably drank a greater variety of 40s and malt liquor than just about anyone on the planet, so what's your favorite 40?
One of my overall favorite 40s is (Haffenreffer) Private Stock: "With the imported taste!" Delicious. You also can't go wrong with the classic OE800, which seems to be THE 40 by which all others are compared.

Yeah, Private Stock is one of my faves too. I wish more stores around me sold it. A lot of my favorite 40s are kind of region-specific, like they don't have Balllantine outside of NYC, and Mickey's doesn't exist on the east coast. With that in mind, where would you live if all you had to think about was what kind of 40s the corner stores offered?
Actually, Ballantine and Mickeys do exist on the east coast. I can get them both two minutes from my home in New Jersey in 40oz size! Forties sometimes seem to pop up in one area, but then out of nowhere another area will start carrying them. However, different regions vary in the alcohol content. For example, Olde English 800 is 7.5% ABV on the west coast, and 5.9% ABV almost everywhere else…I say "almost" because it's limited to 3.2% in OK and is 8.0% in Canada. Similarly, Steel Reserve 211 is 8.1% ABV almost everywhere, but some states limit it to 6.0%. As for where I'd choose to live, I'm pretty happy here in New Jersey, there's a great overall variety of 40s to choose from. Well, perhaps it's not the best selection, but it has most of my favorites. Detroit, one of the least desirable places to live in the US, has one of the best selections.

Do you have any 40s that you prize more than others? Any particular bottles that were really difficult to get or took years of searching to find?
My Holy Grail of 40s is Jaguar, by Anheuser-Busch. It was made at the same time as King Cobra. Both were the same brew, just under different names to see which sold better. KC won, obviously. Jaguar's not the rarest, per-se, it's more like "the one that got away." When I started collecting, I saw an empty Jaguar 40 on eBay that I bid about 30 or 35 dollars on and then started thinking it was crazy to spend any more than that on an empty 40oz bottle, and that I'd come across another one via my website one day. Well, that was over 10 years ago, and I still haven't seen another, and no one in the 40oz Crew has ever come across one either. I wouldn't even blink at paying 35 bucks for that bottle now--I'd pay much more. I actually tracked down the guy who outbid me on it just a few months ago when I joined the BCCA (Brewery Collectibles Club of America) and obtained their roster. I emailed EVERYONE in it, trying to network for 40s. Most of these guys are significantly older than me, and they all mostly collect old beer cans. But I figured surely some guys would have some random 40s tucked away…after all, collectors are borderline hoarders. Sure enough, I quickly added over 100 new bottles to my collection from joining that club. I recognized one of the email addresses as the eBay username of the guy who outbid me (yes, I never forgot his name). I asked him, and sure enough he has it--but he doesn't want to give it up, even after I told him my sob story. It's the only 40 he has, but he's a collector of the Jaguar brand. I did, however, make another contact in the club who is pretty certain he has one packed away somewhere, and he's been looking for me here and there as he has time. I touch base with him now about once a month to follow up. He came across a full 32oz bottle of it in mint condition, but not the 40…not yet, that is. The anticipation is killing me.

HARRY CHEADLE