Goldcrest 51 Premium Beer Cone Top Can

Memphis’s Goldcrest 51 Cone Top

This twelve-ounce high-profile cone top represents a mid-century release from the Tennessee Brewing Company of Memphis, Tennessee. The container features a bold graphic presentation framed by horizontal pinstripes and a central oval cartouche. Prominently displayed across a diagonal blue sash is the gothic-style script for "Goldcrest," set above an eye-catching red circular emblem proclaiming "OVER 51 YEARS." The outer oval border cleanly incorporates the twelve fluid ounce volume declaration along with the mandatory statement naming the Tennessee Brewing Company.

The Goldcrest brand served as the brewery's long-standing flagship product. Following the repeal of Prohibition, the company updated the branding in the late 1930s to Goldcrest 51 to commemorate more than fifty-one years in operation since its late-nineteenth-century reorganization. Positioned as the premier lager of the Mid-South and advertised with slogans like "The Finest Beer You Ever Tasted," Goldcrest 51 established a strong regional presence. In the post-World War II period, the brewery embraced canning to meet shifting consumer preferences across the South.

The roots of the Tennessee Brewing Company date to 1877 when it began as the Memphis Brewing Company. In 1885, German brewer John Wolfgang Schorr and partner Casper Koehler acquired the business, turning it into an industrial powerhouse. By 1890, they had erected an expansive Romanesque-style brick complex on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. In the early twentieth century, it ranked as the largest brewery in the southern United States. While statewide and national prohibition suspended brewing, the Schorr family restarted production upon repeal. Intensifying competition from large national shipping breweries ultimately forced the Memphis plant to shutter in 1954.

Southern cone tops hold an esteemed place among breweriana enthusiasts, and Goldcrest 51 is a quintessential artifact of Tennessee brewing history. The distinctive typography, regional longevity badge, and connection to a historic Memphis institution make this can a celebrated focus for collectors of Southern beer heritage.