It’s always stein time

Retired watchmaker Hermann Allerstorfer jokes that visitors to his Kailua home had better enjoy his collection of more than 650 ceramic beer steins while he’s still alive, because when he goes his wife has promised to get rid of them.

“My wife, she doesn’t like them at all,” said Allerstorfer, 89, of the steins that surround his living room. “I bring home all this junk, she says. When I die, she says she’s going to throw it all out.”

Born in Austria, Allerstorfer went to a specialized school to learn to make and repair watches before working in his homeland as well as Germany and India. It was in India he met his wife, Eva, and they got married before emigrating to the United States in the 1960s.

After finding — and quickly losing — a job in San Francisco, he listened to a friend’s recommendation and relocated to Hawaii. Within days of arriving in 1967, Allerstorfer got his first job in Honolulu as a watch repairman at Security Diamond, earning about $2,500 per month — a pretty good paycheck back then.

“And I’ve taken care of the Aloha Tower clock since 1967,” he added. “I still do it today. Once a month I go there to make sure everything is working.”

But it was during the four years Allerstorfer spent in India that he learned how to barter, a skill he said comes in handy whenever he visits the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet in search of additions to the beer stein collection he started about 10 years ago.

He loves the thrill he gets whenever he uncovers a ceramic mug among the piles of random stuff being sold under someone’s pop-up tent.

“It always makes me happy when I find something new,” he said. “And I do like to haggle. You’re at the swap meet, so you don’t ever pay what they first ask for.”

Although he still enjoys a cold brew every couple of days, Allerstorfer prefers not to drink from the mugs in his collection. He gains satisfaction from keeping his steins organized and examining the different types of artwork featured on each one.

“I like all the different advertising on them and seeing where they come from,” he said. “I like to have all the different kinds, so if I see one I have already, I’m not interested.”

In addition to his local searches, Allerstorfer makes annual trips to Europe to attend a meeting of the Federation of Austrians Living in Foreign Countries. Changes to airline baggage rules have limited the number of steins he can now pack in his luggage, but he generally makes an attempt to bring back at least one new mug each year.

“I’ll buy them at restaurants or you steal them,” he explained. “You see, over there this behavior is generally a habit, that you go to a beer restaurant and you come home with a stein. They don’t mind it. It’s included in the price.”

Allerstorfer and his wife will celebrate 60 years of marriage in March. While he jokes about her distaste for his hobby, he said they are generally able to compromise before she follows through on her threats.

“My biggest problem is running out of space,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t think she’s going to let me have another room!”