Gb Premium Pale Lager Beer Cone Top Can

GB Premium Pale Lager Cone Top

This 12-ounce high-profile cone top can was produced during the Internal Revenue Tax Paid era for Grace Bros. Brewing Co. of Santa Rosa, California. The label design is centered on large block lettering for the "GB" initials, which contain subtle script inside spelling out "Great Beer". Above the monogram sits the "Premium" script banner, while the lower portion displays the circular trademark mascot emblem featuring "Happy Hops," a smiling character with a hop-cone torso raising a glass of beer. Flanking the emblem is the "Pale Lager" designation, underlined by the brewery's agricultural slogan: "We grow our own hops and make our own malt".

GB served as the premier flagship label for Grace Bros., marketed as an authentic regional lager. The brand capitalized on Sonoma County's fertile hop-growing region by promoting its self-sufficient brewing model directly on its packaging and promotional materials. The cheerful "Happy Hops" figure was a recurring fixture in the brewery's postwar regional marketing campaigns before mass-market competition reshuffled the West Coast beer landscape.

Grace Bros. Brewing Co. was founded in 1897 when brothers Joseph T. and Frank P. Grace purchased an existing steam brewery on Second Street in Santa Rosa. After immediately rebuilding following a fire that same year, the brothers built a substantial brewing operation that eventually expanded with facilities across California. The company weathered Prohibition through ice manufacturing and soft drink bottling before resuming beer production upon Repeal in 1933. By the 1940s, Grace Bros. was among the largest brewing operations in the state, continuing production through various family and corporate transitions until the Santa Rosa plant ceased operations in the late 1960s.

Cone tops from Northern California breweries are popular among West Coast collectors and beer historians alike. With its striking graphic typography, classic agricultural slogan, and beloved mascot emblem, this can is an enduring artifact of California's mid-century brewing industry.