Drewrys Extra Dry Beer Flat Top Can

Drewrys Extra Dry Flat Top Can

This mid-century flat top beer can showcases the enamel silver background variation produced for Drewrys Extra Dry Beer. Opening the classic twelve-ounce container reveals standard soldered steel flat top construction from the post-Prohibition canned beer boom. Central to the label is the bold Drewrys heraldic shield and oval cartouche, flanked by the quality pledges "Properly Aged in the Brewery Vaults" and "Brewed from Choice Material." Along the rim of the oval, the design features the company's well-known promotional declarations: "It's Good · Really Good" across the crest and "A Famous Name Since 1877" anchoring the bottom.

The Drewrys brand traced its lineage to 1877, when Edward Lancaster Drewry established a major brewing operation in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Following the repeal of Prohibition in the United States, American investors secured rights to the established Canadian name and imagery to market beer to American consumers. The brand heavily emphasized its northern heritage by incorporating the iconic Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer standing with his horse inside a coat of arms. Marketed vigorously across the Midwest and Great Lakes regions, Drewrys was celebrated for its crisp, extra-dry profile, supported by extensive radio, television, and print campaigns.

The American operation, Drewrys Limited U.S.A., Inc., was established in 1936 after taking over the historic Muessel Brewing Company plant on Elwood Avenue in South Bend, Indiana. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, the South Bend facility expanded dramatically, evolving into one of the largest regional independent breweries in the United States. During its peak years, Drewrys acquired other regional brewing entities, such as Chicago's Atlas Brewing Company and Massachusetts-based Hampden-Harvard. However, escalating competition from national shipping brewers squeezed regional producers during the 1960s, leading to Drewrys' sale to the Associated Brewing Company and eventual acquisition by the G. Heileman Brewing Company in the early 1970s, which ultimately shuttered the South Bend plant.

For collectors of Midwestern breweriana, this enamel silver flat top remains an enduring favorite. The combination of classic mid-century layout, distinctive Mountie iconography, and prominent civic ties to South Bend gives it lasting historical appeal.