Cloud Nine Malt Lager 12 Oz Tab Top Can

Du Bois Cloud Nine Malt Lager

The Cloud Nine Malt Lager 12-ounce can is a straight steel tab top container produced during the 1970s. Issued under the Du Bois Brewing Company name of Du Bois, Pennsylvania, the can features a vivid green background highlighted by flowing script and an ornate heraldic crest positioned directly above the brand name. The label specifically identifies the contents as "Malt Lager" in stylized yellow lettering, a designation utilized alongside standard malt liquor titling to comply with varying state beverage statutes and marketing requirements of the era. Mandatory labeling along the seam marks the packaging location in Du Bois, PA.

Du Bois introduced the Cloud Nine label in the early 1970s to compete in the growing market for high-gravity and specialty malt beverages. Carrying a brand name evocative of total contentment and elevated potency, Cloud Nine was distributed primarily across regional mid-Atlantic markets. The brand was marketed as a robust alternative to standard American lagers before being phased out as regional brewing dynamics shifted.

The Du Bois Brewing Company was founded in 1896 by German immigrant Frank Hahne in Du Bois, Pennsylvania. Blessed with local mountain water and a robust economy driven by rail and coal mining, the brewery quickly expanded into a prominent regional operation. Du Bois earned national fame in brewing history due to a lengthy trademark dispute with Anheuser-Busch over the right to use the "DuBois Budweiser" name, a conflict Du Bois ultimately defended in federal court. The plant survived Prohibition through the sale of near-beer and ice, resuming full production in 1933. Confronted with increasing post-war competition from national brewing giants, the company was sold to Pittsburgh Brewing Company in the late 1960s, which ceased operations at the Du Bois facility in 1972 while continuing to package select brands under the name.

For breweriana enthusiasts, this can holds special significance as a piece of Pennsylvania brewing heritage. The "Malt Lager" version of Cloud Nine remains especially desirable to collectors focused on regional oddities and state-mandated labeling variations from the pull-tab era.