Bottle Cap Map

I've had my eye on beer cap maps for some time but hadn't committed to buying one for one reason or another. Recently I was offered one to review and I happily took the folks at Beer Gifts up on it since I have boat load of bottle caps sitting around that I've been wanting to do "something" with.

A week later a package arrived on my doorstep with an Oregon Beer Cap Map. Within minutes of unwrapping the map I was digging into the kitchen drawer that holds bottle caps for one to fit in. A little unsure how difficult it would be to pop them in I was pleased to find it was relatively easy to insert the first one, a Buoy cap, into the back of the map.

From there things got harder as I weighed putting Oregon only bottle caps into the map or simply filling it with the caps I like, regardless of the state they're from. I know the former is the idea of the maps for each state but I'll be honest that it seems a little more ambitious than I'm up for. Instead, albeit it possibly committing blasphemy by doing so, I decided to select my favorite caps from the vast collection I've accumulated over the-beer-gods-only-know-how-long.

So far it's about half filled but it's definitely taking shape and I'm looking forward to completing it so I can work on finding a place to hang it. That'll be a bit of a challenge as we have relatively little available wall space but with strategically placed pre-drilled holes in the map and its minimal weight once I do identify a place it should take mere minutes to put it up.

So whether you're looking for something for yourself or a gift for a fellow bottle cap collector and plan to use it as intended or take my course of action it's an easy to use product that offers an easy way to display those bottle caps that I KNOW you have tucked away in drawers.

****COMPLETION UPDATE****

With my bottle cap map now complete (save for two spots that are waiting to be filled by caps attached to beers in my fridge just days away from being consumed) I wanted to share a couple of helpful tips.

1. Work from the inside/center, outward. This doesn't need to be a hard and fast rule but it will become more important as the map fills up and you'll find less handholds needed to apply pressure to add caps.

2. Plan on this being a multi-day project. Your thumbs (or whatever digits take the most pressure pushing the caps into their holes) will give out and you'll need to give them a rest. Plus, a little time away from it will provide better perspective on the overall look and outcome of the map.