Horton Beer Flat Top Can

Horton Beer Metropolis Flat Top

The Horton Beer flat top can is an authentic mid-twentieth-century artifact representing the post-Prohibition brewing landscape in New York City. Produced during the Internal Revenue Tax Paid (IRTP) era, this twelve-ounce steel container features a burnt-orange background framed by striking graphics. The label displays the distinctive Old English gothic "Horton" logotype positioned above a central medallion. Within this emblem, the phrase "America's Finest" arches over an illustration of two formal, white-cuffed hands clinking stemmed beer glasses together in a celebratory toast.

The Horton brand traces its roots back to regional brewing operations in New York, originally marketed by the Horton Pilsener Brewing Company. Promoted through spirited slogans celebrating quality and conviviality—most visibly through its "America's Finest" moniker—Horton was positioned as a dependable regional lager designed to appeal to urban working-class and tavern crowds. Through shifting brewery ownerships and corporate consolidations throughout the 1940s, the brand changed hands multiple times, eventually being canned under various operations including Metropolis.

Metropolis Brewery produced this can at its facility in Manhattan, located at the former Fidelio brewery property on First Avenue. Metropolis operated as part of a complex corporate group connected to Greater New York Industries during the 1940s. Operating during a volatile era marked by wartime material constraints and intense post-war market competition, Metropolis packaged several historic regional labels before eventually winding down its Manhattan operations in the 1950s and shifting production to Trenton, New Jersey.

For breweriana enthusiasts, this flat top can holds special significance within the realm of East Coast regional brewing history. Cans bearing the New York City Metropolis mandatory statement represent a pivotal transitional chapter in American beverage packaging, capturing the post-war expansion of flat top containers. Its distinctive toasting artwork and direct link to New York's vanished mid-century brewing industry make it an enduring favorite among flat top collectors.