Iron City Beer 12 Oz Tab Top Can

Pittsburgh's Tab Top Pioneer

Produced by the Pittsburgh Brewing Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the Iron City Beer 12 oz tab top can holds a landmark place in beverage packaging history. In 1962, Pittsburgh Brewing collaborated with the Pittsburgh-based Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) to bring inventor Ermal Fraze's pull-tab design to commercial production. This breakthrough made Iron City Beer the very first commercial brand to hit the market in a self-opening tab top can.

Initially test-marketed in Staunton, Virginia, the can featured promotional slogans including the "New Easy Open Snap Top" and later heralded the brewery as "No. 1 with the Snap Top". The market response was immediate and overwhelming; sales surged dramatically, leading Pittsburgh Brewing to rapidly convert its canned beer production and setting off an industry-wide transition toward tab top containers.

For breweriana collectors, this can represents a major turning point in container development. Several variations exist across production runs, reflecting revisions to the lid stamping, instructional phrasing, and rim profiles introduced during early manufacturing refinements.