Brew 102 Pale Dry Beer Flat Top Can

Maier's Brew 102 Pale Dry Flat Top

This 12-ounce flat top container dates to the early 1960s, a transitional era in beverage packaging when breweries experimented with mixed-metal canning. Manufactured for the Maier Brewing Company, the steel can prominently features a yellow burst in the upper corner proclaiming "NEWEST! Easy Opening ALUMINUM TOP," highlighting the softer aluminum lid designed to make churchkey puncturing significantly easier. The face displays a foamy pilsner glass set against a dark background, flanked by bold typography, the phrase "Draught Beer Flavor" in script, and the bottom slogan "PERFECTED AFTER 101 BREWS."

Maier introduced Brew 102 in the early 1950s as a marketing reinvention to rejuvenate sales for its flagship lager. Company advertising leaned heavily into the playful backstory implied by its name—that brewmasters had tested 101 recipes before striking perfection on attempt 102. Backed by memorable radio jingles and aggressive pricing, Brew 102 was positioned directly as an unpretentious, dependable working-class beer across Southern California, becoming a ubiquitous fixture of mid-century Los Angeles.

The history of the Maier Brewing Company stretches back to the late 19th century. Founded in downtown Los Angeles near the site of the historic El Aliso sycamore, the operation started as the Philadelphia Brewery in 1875 before German immigrant Joseph Maier and partner George Zobelein took ownership in 1882. Reorganized solely as Maier Brewing in 1907, the company survived Prohibition by producing near beer and malt products. Post-repeal, its sprawling plant—situated right alongside where the Santa Ana Freeway would later be built—became an iconic industrial presence in the city. The brewery continued production through the postwar boom until it was acquired in the early 1970s and eventually closed.

For breweriana collectors, this can holds strong historical appeal as a prime artifact of Southern California brewing heritage. It also captures an important technological bridge in metal packaging, marking the brief window when can manufacturers merged steel bodies with aluminum ends just prior to the widespread adoption of pull tabs.