Acme Bock Flat Top Can

Acme Bock Flat Top Beer Can

The Acme Bock flat top can represents a classic 12 oz steel container produced in Los Angeles, California, during the early 1950s. While Acme had packaged flagship lagers and ales in cans starting in 1936, the brewery did not package its seasonal bock beer in flat top cans until the turn of the decade. The front panel features a prominent orange-red shield bearing an intricately rendered blue-toned goat’s head framed by green hop vines and cones. Below this central heraldic emblem, "BOCK" is printed in bold block lettering above "BEER," set against a clean off-white field bordered by metallic gold bands.

Acme introduced its bock beer shortly after the repeal of Prohibition in 1934 as a traditional springtime seasonal release. In accordance with classic brewing tradition—where Munich brewers linked rich spring bock to the German word for billy goat—Acme centered its marketing on the goat motif. The seasonal brew appeared annually each March until wartime grain rationing paused production through the mid-1940s, after which Acme revived the beloved seasonal tradition for postwar consumers.

The brewery traces its roots to 1907, when Leopold Schmidt of Washington's Olympia Brewing Company established the Acme Brewing Company in San Francisco. Following Prohibition, Acme expanded aggressively into Southern California, opening a major facility in the Los Angeles industrial suburb of Vernon in 1935. Partnering with Bohemian Distributing Company, Acme surged to become California's top-selling brewing empire through the late 1930s and 1940s, eventually producing over a million barrels per year. However, severe post-World War II competition from national shipping breweries eroded regional sales, culminating in the sale of the Los Angeles plant to Liebmann Breweries in 1954.

Vintage bock containers occupy a cherished niche among breweriana enthusiasts because their short annual production windows resulted in lower output than flagship year-round lagers. Featuring striking animal illustration and quintessential mid-century West Coast graphics, this Los Angeles flat top stands as a celebrated highlight of Golden State brewing history.