Burger Beer Cone Top Can

Burger Beer Cincinnati Cone Top Can

This vintage twelve-ounce cone top can represents an early canned offering from The Burger Brewing Company of Cincinnati, Ohio. Featuring low-profile cone construction paired with a concave bottom, the can carries the mandatory "Internal Revenue Tax Paid" notation required on domestic beer packaging produced prior to 1950. Across the center band, it highlights the promotional tagline "America's Finest Canned Beer," celebrating the era's transition to packaged metal containers.

Brand History and Slogans

Following the repeal of Prohibition, Bürger Beer emerged as a dominant working-class favorite throughout the Ohio Valley. The brand embraced the distinctive regional dialect phrase, "Vas You Efer in Zinzinnati," emblazoned across the lower cream section of the label. This slogan celebrated Cincinnati's deep German-American heritage and became an enduring cultural catchphrase. Above the prominent gothic-lettered brand name sits a circular emblem featuring the company's whimsical pack-laden camel mascot bearing a "B" blanket. Bürger solidified its local dominance in subsequent decades as the long-running broadcast sponsor of the Cincinnati Reds, where radio announcer Waite Hoyt famously christened the Crosley Field sun deck "Burgerville".

The Brewery

The origins of The Burger Brewing Company trace back to 1874, when German immigrant Louis Burger and his family established a malting business in Cincinnati. The operation supplied malt to regional breweries before transitioning to brewing its own commercial beers upon the repeal of Prohibition in 1934. Burger grew into one of Cincinnati’s most prolific post-repeal breweries, expanding packaging lines and later acquiring the Burkhardt Brewery in Akron during the 1950s. Confronted by mounting pressure from national brewing conglomerates during the 1960s and early 1970s, Burger ceased brewing operations in 1973, with its portfolio of brands purchased by crosstown rival Hudepohl.

Collecting Context

Mid-century cone tops from historic brewing centers like Cincinnati occupy a prominent place in breweriana collections. This container is particularly prized by collectors of regional Ohio cans and Cincinnati Reds memorabilia due to its intact tax-paid text, classic German-dialect typography, and iconic camel emblem.