How Two Brewery Encounters Sparked My Brewery Sticker Book
Some souvenirs sit in a drawer and get forgotten. A brewery sticker does something better. It holds the sound of the room, the taste of the beer, the people at the next table, and the little moment that made the stop worth remembering.
That is how My Brewery Sticker Book started for me.
Sticker #2 came from Wabasha Brewing Company in St. Paul, Minnesota. I already liked the idea of collecting brewery stickers, but that day turned the idea into a story I knew I wanted to keep. The best part was not just the beer, the sticker, or the brewery itself. It was seeing Kevin and Shelly again, the couple I had met months earlier at Moose Lake Brewing Company, the people who helped spark the whole sticker book idea in the first place.
I was walking back to the table from the bathroom when I heard someone call out:
“Is that my Helen?”
I looked over, and there they were. Kevin and Shelly from Madison Lake, Minnesota. Same brewery. Same time. In St. Paul. What are the odds?
The Moose Lake stop that planted the idea
The best ideas usually do not show up with a plan. They show up in the middle of a normal day.
That is what happened at Moose Lake Brewing Company.
I met Kevin and Shelly there, and the conversation did what good taproom conversations often do. It started small, then turned into something worth remembering. Breweries have a way of making that happen. People are relaxed. Nobody is in a rush. A sticker on the wall or a beer name on the menu can start a whole story.
At some point, the idea of keeping brewery stickers in one place started to feel right. Not stuck randomly on a cooler. Not buried in a drawer. Not slapped onto something I might replace later. A book. A place where each sticker could have its own page, its own stop, its own memory.
That is how a simple brewery sticker became more than a piece of vinyl.
Moose Lake Brewing Company was the spark. Kevin and Shelly were part of that spark. They made the visit feel connected to something bigger than a single stop. I did not know then that they would appear again so soon, or that they would become part of Sticker #2’s story too.
That is the beauty of collecting something tied to real places. The collection does not grow in a straight line. It grows through detours, conversations, wrong turns, and lucky timing.
Sticker books are usually thought of as kid stuff, but this one felt different from the start. It was not about filling pages as fast as possible. It was about slowing down enough to notice where I had been.
A brewery sticker is small, but it can carry a lot:
The town you were in
The beer you tried
The people you met
The weather that day
The table you sat at
The funny thing someone said
The reason you want to remember it
That first encounter at Moose Lake gave the idea a heartbeat.
Sticker 2 came from Wabasha Brewing Company
Sticker #2 came from Wabasha Brewing Company in St. Paul.
There is something fun about saying “Sticker #2.” It makes the whole thing feel official. Not fancy. Not over planned. Just official enough to say, “Yes, I am doing this now.”
Wabasha Brewing Company became the second entry in the book, and that matters. The first sticker may start the idea, but the second one proves it was not just a one-time thought. The second sticker says the book is going to keep going.
St. Paul already has the kind of character that fits a brewery sticker book. It is a city with neighborhoods, history, old buildings, river roads, and places that feel lived in. A brewery stop there feels like part of the city, not separate from it.
When I added the Wabasha sticker, I was not just saving a logo or design. I was saving that visit.
The taproom, the walk back to the table, the surprise voice calling out, the double take, the laugh after realizing who it was. Those are the pieces that made the sticker matter.
A sticker book gives those details somewhere to land.
I like the idea that each page can be simple. It does not need a long journal entry unless the day calls for one. Sometimes a sticker, the brewery name, the city, and the date are enough. Other times, a few lines are needed because the story is too good to trust to memory alone.
For Wabasha, the story needed writing down.
Something like:
Sticker #2
Wabasha Brewing Company
St. Paul, Minnesota
Ran into Kevin and Shelly from Madison Lake, MN, the same couple from Moose Lake Brewing Company. Heard, “Is that my Helen?” while walking back from the bathroom. Could not believe it.
That is the kind of note that would make me smile years later.
Without the book, I might still remember parts of the day. With the book, the memory has a home.
The moment I heard, “Is that my Helen?”
Some moments feel scripted, even when they are completely random.
I was walking back to the table from the bathroom. Just a normal little in-between moment. Not the kind of moment where you expect anything interesting to happen.
Then I heard it.
“Is that my Helen?”
It stopped me.
I looked over, and there were Kevin and Shelly.
Not at Moose Lake. Not back in Madison Lake. Not at some planned meetup. They were sitting there at Wabasha Brewing Company in St. Paul, Minnesota, at the same time I was there.
That is the part I still cannot get over.
Kevin and Shelly are from Madison Lake, Mn. I had met them at Moose Lake Brewing Company, and that meeting helped spark the creation of My Brewery Sticker Book. Then, right as Sticker #2 was happening, they showed up again.
It felt like the sticker book was already proving its point.
The whole purpose of the book was to remember brewery stops and the stories that came with them. Then the second sticker came with a story I could not have planned if I tried.
That is what makes brewery visits special. The beer matters, of course. The building, the tap list, the sticker design, and the town all matter too. But the people are what turn a stop into a memory.
You can visit a brewery alone, with a friend, with family, or on a trip where you do not know anyone. Still, there is always a chance that a conversation changes the day. A person at the next table might recommend a beer. A bartender might tell you where to eat next. A couple you met in one town might appear again in another.
That is the kind of thing a sticker cannot explain by itself. The sticker needs the story beside it.
Why brewery stickers make the best travel memories
I have saved plenty of things from places I have visited. Receipts, coasters, photos, postcards, bottle caps, and random little keepsakes. They all have charm, but brewery stickers hit a sweet spot.
They are small. They are easy to carry. They are usually affordable. They have personality. Best of all, they come from a real stop, not just a gift shop shelf that could be anywhere.
A brewery sticker says, “I was here.”
A sticker book says, “Here is why I remember it.”
That small difference matters.
Photos are great, but they can get lost in a camera roll. A sticker book asks you to slow down for a minute. You have to place the sticker. You have to choose the page. You might write the city or the date. You might add who you were with or what happened.
That little act turns a casual visit into a saved memory.
For me, brewery stickers work because they connect three things:
The place
Every brewery has its own feel. Some are tucked into old buildings. Some are clean and modern. Some feel like a neighborhood living room. Some are road trip stops where everyone seems to be passing through.
The people
A brewery visit often comes with a conversation. Sometimes it is with people you know. Sometimes it is with strangers who become part of the story. Kevin and Shelly are now part of mine.
The timing
You cannot recreate the exact timing of a surprise encounter. That is why it feels so good to save it when it happens.
The Wabasha sticker now carries all of that.
It is not only Sticker #2. It is the sticker that says the book was going to be about more than breweries. It was going to be about the connections that happen along the way.
How I want to keep building the book
After Wabasha, I started thinking about what each new page should include.
I do not want the book to feel too strict. If there are too many rules, it starts to feel like homework. The fun comes from keeping it simple enough to continue.
A good brewery sticker book page might include:
Brewery name
City and state
Date of the visit
Who was there
Beer tried
Favorite moment
A short note about the day
That is enough. No need to write a full review unless I feel like it. No need to rank every stop. No need to make the pages perfect.
The point is to capture the memory while it is still close.
For Sticker #2, the favorite moment is easy. It was hearing that familiar voice and realizing Kevin and Shelly were there too. I can still picture the surprise of it. I can still feel that little burst of, “How cool is that?”
That phrase belongs in the book too.
Sometimes the best line is the simplest one.
How cool is that?
It says everything.
The best part was the coincidence
I keep coming back to the timing.
If I had gone to the bathroom a few minutes earlier, I might not have heard them. If Kevin and Shelly had arrived later, we might have missed each other. If either of us had picked a different brewery that day, there would be no story.
Instead, we were all there.
That is why Sticker #2 means so much. Wabasha Brewing Company became more than the second sticker in the book. It became proof that these brewery stops can connect in strange, funny, wonderful ways.
The first encounter at Moose Lake Brewing Company helped spark the idea. The second encounter at Wabasha Brewing Company gave the idea momentum.
Now, every new sticker has a chance to carry a story like that. Maybe not every stop will come with a surprise reunion. That is fine. Some pages will be quiet. Some will be funny. Some will be tied to a good beer, a long drive, a weekend away, or a simple afternoon that turned out better than expected.
The book will hold all of it.
That is what I love most about it.
A brewery sticker book does not need to be perfect. It just needs to be honest. Put the sticker on the page. Write down the part you do not want to forget. Let the book grow one stop at a time.
For me, Sticker #2 will always be Wabasha Brewing Company in St. Paul, the day I heard, “Is that my Helen?” and looked over to see Kevin and Shelly from Madison Lake.
Two brewery encounters. One unexpected reunion. One sticker book with a story already worth telling.
Comments