Gettelman Milwaukee Beer Flat Top Can

Gettelman Milwaukee Flat Top Can

Produced by the A. Gettelman Brewing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Gettelman Milwaukee Beer flat top can represents a notable chapter in Midwestern brewing heritage. While Gettelman was the smallest of Milwaukee's famous "Big Five" breweries—competing alongside brewing titans like Schlitz, Pabst, Blatz, and Miller—the company played an outsized role in packaging and technical innovation.

Brewery president Frederick "Fritz" Gettelman was a renowned inventor who developed early steel keg designs and consulted directly with major can manufacturers during the developmental years of modern canning technology. Cans bearing the Gettelman name reflect this forward-thinking transition into flat top metal packaging.

The Gettelman Milwaukee Beer flat top can features classic Midwestern breweriana design, showcasing bold typography and the proud Milwaukee heritage of the brand. Over the course of manufacturing, subtle differences in side-panel mandatory text, manufacturer marks, and color saturation produced known variations sought after by regional can collectors. Following the acquisition of the Gettelman brewery by the Miller Brewing Company in 1961, original cans produced under the independent A. Gettelman operation stand as enduring artifacts of Milwaukee's golden era of brewing.