Guinness's Lager Beer Flat Top Can

Goebel's Guinness Lager Flat Top

The Guinness's Lager Beer flat top can represents an intriguing chapter in American breweriana, resulting from a licensing and contract brewing agreement between Arthur Guinness Son & Co. and the Goebel Brewing Company of Detroit, Michigan.

Following the closure of Guinness's domestic production facility in Long Island City, New York, the Irish brewer partnered with Goebel to produce and package Guinness-branded beverages domestically. Under this arrangement, Goebel manufactured and packaged both Guinness's Ale and Guinness's Lager Beer from its facilities in Detroit to supply the American market without the expenses associated with transatlantic shipping duties.

The can design integrates traditional Guinness branding and classic heraldry onto the steel flat top format. Collectors recognize variations across production batches, with differences appearing in the mandatory brewery statements, legal text formatting, and ink saturation.

Because the production agreement between Guinness and Goebel was relatively short-lived, this container stands as a prized crossover item connecting Dublin's historic brewing legacy with Detroit's mid-century canning heritage.