Whoops of joy erupted Saturday afternoon on the Snake River Brewery and Restaurant deck as the names of lottery winners were drawn from a box.

The spoils were not millions of dollars, despite the buzz of excitement, but spare 20-ounce glass mugs coveted by brew pub regulars. The numbered mugs, 4 ounces larger than the glasses used to serve ordinary imbibers, hang from carabiners above the bar, each vessel dedicated exclusively to one drinker and typically decorated with stickers.

The Mug Club started in the late 1990s and now comprises 207 20-ounce glasses. An annual renewal fee of $40 gains each mug owner more beer in the larger glasses for 50 cents less than the usual price, as well as two free all-you-can-eat-and-drink meals and 15 percent off six-packs and brew pub merchandise.

Mugs of those who don’t renew are redistributed.

Fifty-nine people added their names to the lottery Saturday. The first of nine names drawn was Steve Stec, who had lingered on the Mug Club waiting list for more than a year.

Bob Fuziak, general manager at the brew pub, decided to distribute unrenewed mugs in a lottery after the waiting list went missing around Christmas 2006. At the time, there were more than 200 names on the hand-written list; its disappearance prompted rumors of sabotage. Fuziak insists no one knows what happened to the list.

“After it got lost, we weren’t sure – what do you do, start a new list?” he said. “That would be grossly unfair.”

Fuziak figured a lottery was the fairest alternative. Problems arose following last year’s mug lottery, though, when some glasses were given to new owners before the old ones were contacted.

To correct such errors this year, “I physically called everyone who hadn’t renewed,” Fuziak said, to check whether they wanted to keep their mugs.

Other winners of Saturday’s lottery included James Keller, Jeremy Hopple, Steph Thomas, Mark Dalby, Haynes Poe and Shannon Barden.

“I’ve been coming here for long enough I thought I’d give it a shot,” said Keller, whose name was the second one drawn.

Poe had even lower expectations.

“I never win anything,” she said.

The lottery tickets were free. To ensure genuine brew pub patrons entered the drawing, it was advertised only by a sign on the pub door.

Regularity of use remains a touchy mug subject. The “official policy” on infrequently used mugs coveted by brew pub regulars, Fuziak said, is to keep an eye on the dust layer and contact absent mug club members when it gets too thick.

“We’ve learned people have other things going on in their lives,” Fuziak said, such as family and medical situations. “There’s really only a few of those dusty mugs.”

The number of glasses in the club remains limited due to storage space, but it has expanded beyond the original 150 with the addition of racks a few years ago.

If emotions run high over membership in the Mug Club, they also often swirl around the brew pub itself.

Barden, the final name drawn in Saturday’s lottery, happens to be Stec’s girlfriend.

“We’ve nearly broken up several times over his excessive time spent at the brew pub,” she said.

Now that she has a mug there, maybe she’ll just join him.

– With reporting from Michael Pearlman.