Stuart Reed and Annie Thomas were not looking for land for horses or livestock when they moved to their North Canterbury lifestyle block some 10 years ago. More than anything, they needed somewhere with lots of shed space for Stu’s trucks and his vast collection of beer cans.

Words Kim Newth   Photos Daniela Abeli

Stuart Reed’s canucopuia all started with a can of draught bitter back when he was 18. It was put on a windowsill, then another went up beside it, and another, until there were 10 cans in a row. ‘I thought it looked cool, so I decided to start collecting beer cans.’ A serious accident in 2004, leaving Stu off work for months, kicked it up to the next level. With time on his hands, Stu went hunting online and ended up purchasing an enormous beer can collection from Milwaukee. A 40-foot container was needed to ship it back here. Fitting all of this into the four-bedroom suburban home, where he and Annie were living at the time, was out of the question.

‘You might say I got carried away – and that’s why we moved here, as it had this big shed and room to build more,’ says Stu. ‘When we got here, I then realised I had to find a way to display the collection and started thinking about the best way to do that.’

Hence ‘Shanty Town’, the couple’s replica Wild West town, complete with Stu’s Garage, Thomas & Reed Undertakers, Annie’s Saloon (with bar, billiards table and pump organ), Bella’s Parlour (named after Stu and Annie’s Maltese Shih Tzu) and a drug store. ‘We started with a four-car garage and built out from that, helped by my parents. It took us four years of constant work to get it to this.’

Next to the replica drug store is a 20 x 12 metre shed housing Stu’s core collection of 70,000 beer cans, each one different. There isn’t enough room to display 30,000 more in boxes in another shed. ‘This ranks as the biggest beer can collection in New Zealand and probably one of the 10 biggest collections in the world.’

Exploring the rooms and bays inside this beer can shed is an eye-opener. Row upon row of cans are stacked to the roof, grouped by country of origin. The ring pulls are intact but the cans are empty of beer, having been holed at the bottom. Some came empty, while the contents of others have been happily consumed. The largest is a 10 litre can from Germany, while the smallest is a tiny Japanese 135 ml specimen.

Stu looks for special editions, commemorative releases, boxed sets and cans with history, like flat tops from before WWII. The rarest NZ cans in the collection – branded Deep Cove Beer and West Arm Beer – were only released to workers on those respective power station projects. ‘Quite a few tell a story – about famous places and people – and many just look really cool.’

One room, dedicated to beer and associated memorabilia, includes shelves of pre-1965 long-necked beer bottles and a standalone collection of miniatures. There are various themed shelves, such as ones dedicated to Hamm’s Beer or Budweiser’s connection with NASCAR’s Dale Earnhardt Jr. who drove the No. 8 Budweiser car. Another celebrates places that Stu and Annie have travelled to with keepsakes like Stonehenge Ale, a bottle of Route Beer 66 and a limited edition bottle of Everest beer, from a trip to the Himalayas.

Reflecting Stu’s career in trucking, another shed houses his 1980 Kenworth with sleeper cab, a 1936 Stewart truck, a 1946 Ford Jailbar and various other treasures.

None of this is open to the public, but Annie and Stu love sharing it with friends and family, as well as car clubs and other groups who come to take a look.

The collection doesn’t stop there, with a room inside their home devoted to Guinness beer … but really, that’s a whole other story.