Becker's Best Pale Premium Beer Flat Top Can

Ogden's Flagship Intermountain Flat Top

This flat top container represents a notable chapter in post-Repeal Intermountain brewing history. Filled by Becker Products Company of Ogden, Utah, the 12-ounce can carries mandatory "PACKED BY..." panel captioning alongside an "OT" (Other Tax) statement. Its face is dominated by crisp script and bold sans-serif lettering, capped by Becker's traditional crest that features a flying goose set against the sunrise and an outlined "B" emblem. Cataloged under Lilek's reference guide (L91), cans from this era feature opening instruction side panels and were manufactured by the American Can Company in the late 1940s.

Becker's Best was established as a core label by the Becker family in the pre-Prohibition era and revitalized immediately following national Repeal in the mid-1930s. Marketed across the Intermountain West as a refined pale lager, it served as the company’s flagship brand. Promotion centered around purity and local craftsmanship, often tied to outdoor recreation, hunting, and regional sports traditions. The label enjoyed widespread distribution across Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Nevada before retiring as market competition intensified in the mid-20th century.

The Becker family’s commercial roots in Ogden began in 1890, when German immigrant John S. Becker and his sons, Gustav and Albert, founded the Becker Brewing and Malting Company along the Ogden River. Situated in "Junction City," a busy railroad hub, the brewery quickly grew into one of the largest brewing enterprises in the Mountain West. When statewide prohibition laws loomed in 1917, the family reorganized the operation as Becker Products Company, manufacturing near-beer like "Becco," soft drinks, and commercial ice, while opening a facility across the border in Evanston, Wyoming. As a result, Becker stood as the only Utah brewery to navigate through Prohibition and successfully restart legal brewing in 1933. Surviving for more than seven decades, escalating production overhead and mounting pressure from expanding national mega-breweries ultimately forced Becker Products to cease operations in the mid-1960s.

Today, regional vintage cans from Utah are prized within breweriana collections. Because the state's cultural landscape limited the number of active breweries, Becker Products cans represent a singular regional legacy. This flat top is an essential centerpiece for collectors focusing on instructional cans, Western mining and railroad-town breweriana, and historical Utah manufacturing.