North Bay man looking to turn bottle collection into beer museum

Tony Matheson of North Bay has been collecting Canadian beer bottles since he was 18.

He now has more than 4,300 bottles in his basement and they are all still full of beer.

The collection is so significant Matheson hopes, eventually, to use it as the basis for a new beer museum in the city.

When he is not collecting, Matheson is a mission crew commander at the Royal Canadian Air Force. He is only a few years away from retirement and says that's when he wants to focus more on the museum.

But it would be more than just his beer bottles and would be modelled after the Canadian Collectors of Brewery Advertising.

"Whether it's beer openers, beer trays, also known as tip trays, or just paper, anything to do with beer someone is collecting it," he says.

"I think along with my beer bottle collection you know, I could show some of these other collections in that kind of format, would be very, very interesting to a lot of people."

Matheson believes the value of his collection is between $15,000 - $20,000.