Augustiner Beer 12 Oz Tab Top Can

Augustiner Beer Crimped Tab Top

The Can

This 12-ounce crimped steel tab top container was produced by the Pittsburgh Brewing Company during the mid-1970s. The front face features an angled banner displaying the ornate red "Augustiner Beer" script beneath a row of historical European exhibition medals, including honors from the 1911 Exposition Internationale in Antwerp and the 1912 Paris Food Hygiene Exposition. Mandatory side text identifies the packaging facility at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with the 15201 postal code. In reference literature, this container was previously classified under an earlier general catalog designation before being separated into its own distinct listing.

The Brand

Augustiner was originally established in Columbus, Ohio, by Bavarian-born brewmaster August Wagner, who founded his namesake brewery in 1906. Wagner styled his flagship beverage after traditional Munich lagers, proudly promoting the brand's European heritage and medal-winning prestige. Following financial hardship and the eventual closure of August Wagner Breweries in the early 1970s, the Pittsburgh Brewing Company purchased the Augustiner brand rights—alongside companion labels such as Mark V, Robin Hood, and Gambrinus—in January 1974 to bolster its regional market footprint.

The Brewery

The Pittsburgh Brewing Company traces its lineage back to 1861, when German immigrant Edward Frauenheim founded Frauenheim, Miller & Company in the Lawrenceville area of Pittsburgh. In 1899, the operation joined twenty other regional breweries to form the consolidated Pittsburgh Brewing Company, quickly growing into one of the largest brewing organizations in the country. The company weathered Prohibition by manufacturing soft drinks, ice cream, and near-beer before returning to commercial brewing upon repeal in 1933. Pittsburgh Brewing achieved packaging fame in 1962 by introducing the first self-opening tab top cans in partnership with Alcoa. As national conglomerates squeezed regional brewers throughout the 1970s, the company stayed afloat by adopting legacy labels from shuttered competitors.

Collecting Context

This can is an engaging piece for collectors of 1970s steel pull tabs and rust-belt breweriana. It serves as a tangible snapshot of American brewing consolidation, marking the transition of a classic Ohio recipe into the production line of Pittsburgh's most famous regional brewery.