Berghoff 1887 Premium Extra Beer 12 Oz Tab Top Can

Berghoff 1887 Pale Extra Dry Can

Produced by the Pearl Brewing Company in San Antonio, Texas, this 12-ounce all-aluminum tab top can showcases the Berghoff 1887 brand with straight-bottom profiling and metric volume labeling. Its face features the signature script logo positioned below three small gold stars, centered over bold outlined numerals denoting "1887," flanking a central heraldic shield with a geometric hexagon. The label designates the brew as "Pale Extra Dry Beer", reflecting an era of packaging when domestic brewers incorporated metric equivalents into their standard measurements.

The Berghoff brand dates back to 1887, when German immigrant Herman Berghoff and his brothers Henry, Hubert, and Gustav founded the Berghoff Brewing Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Known for Dortmund-style lagers, the brothers gained wider fame after Herman operated a beer pavilion at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. That success inspired the 1898 opening of Chicago's famous Berghoff Restaurant, which survived Prohibition by selling near-beer and soda pop before receiving Chicago's Liquor License Number 1 upon repeal in 1933. Following the 1954 sale and eventual closure of the Fort Wayne plant, the Berghoff trademark endured through contract brewing and corporate transfers, remaining a respected Midwestern heritage name.

Although born in Indiana, this specific can originated in Texas under the Pearl Brewing Company. Originally founded in the 1880s as the San Antonio Brewing Association, the company grew into a regional powerhouse under the leadership of Otto Koehler and later his wife, Emma Koehler. Emma steered the business through Prohibition by manufacturing soft drinks, commercial ice, and food products until brewing operations resumed in 1933. Officially renamed the Pearl Brewing Company in 1952, the operation was later acquired by Paul Kalmanovitz's General Brewing organization. Under this consolidated network, the San Antonio plant produced many legacy and contract labels—including Berghoff—before the historic brewery ceased operations in 2001.

To breweriana collectors, this can represents an intriguing period of brewery consolidation, when a storied Indiana-born label was produced and canned far from its traditional home. It also draws interest from tab top specialists who catalog the evolution of all-aluminum cans, straight-bottom seam variations, and early metric labeling adjustments.