Fehr's X/l Beer Flat Top Can

Fehr's X/L Beer Flat Top Can

The Can

This 12-ounce flat top can represents a mid-century packaging design produced for the Frank Fehr Brewing Company of Louisville, Kentucky. The label centers on the brewery's classic circular insignia, which features a traditional brewing scene framed by an arch reading "Fehr's" and a black shield displaying the "X/L" monogram bordered by the slogan "THE BEER THAT XCELS." Set against a clean background with metallic gold accents, the bold white "Fehr's" brand name sits prominently within a bright red rectangular cartouche alongside script lettering for "Beer."

The Brand

Fehr's X/L stood as the flagship product of the Frank Fehr portfolio. The "X/L" lettering was a phonetic play on the word "excel," creating a memorable brand identity centered on brewing quality. The beer achieved widespread acclaim during the late nineteenth century, winning honors at Louisville's Southern Exposition in the 1880s and becoming one of the most popular beers throughout the Ohio River Valley. Over the decades, advertising campaigns reinforced the name through celebrated regional slogans, including "The Beer That Xcels" and the playful "It's Always Fehr Weather."

The Brewery

Frank Fehr, a German immigrant, founded the enterprise in Louisville in 1872 as the City Brewery before incorporating it under his own name. By the turn of the twentieth century, Frank Fehr Brewing Company had grown into one of the largest and most technologically advanced breweries in the South. The operation weathered Prohibition by pivoting to near beer, ice production, and other commercial goods, allowing it to resume brewing immediately upon Repeal in 1933. In the post-World War II period, intense competition from national shipping brewers and local economic pressures created financial strain. The Louisville facility ultimately ceased brewing in 1964, after which Cincinnati's Schoenling Brewing Company acquired the Fehr's brand rights and continued regional production.

Collecting Context

Fehr's containers are staple centerpieces for collectors focusing on Kentucky breweriana and regional mid-century flat tops. Representing one of Louisville's major pre- and post-Prohibition brewing institutions, this can captures the graphic transition of a historic nineteenth-century heritage brand into twentieth-century steel packaging.