Iron City Beer 12 Oz Tab Top Can

Iron City's Snap Top Innovation

The 12-ounce Iron City Beer tab top can produced by the Pittsburgh Brewing Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, holds a monumental place in breweriana history as the packaging innovation that revolutionized the canned beverage industry. In 1962, Pittsburgh Brewing Company partnered with the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) to commercially introduce the self-opening pull tab lid, adapting the mechanism developed by inventor Ermal Fraze.

Iron City Beer was initially test-marketed with the new closure in Staunton, Virginia, in late 1962. The market response was immediate and overwhelming, leading to a dramatic surge in sales that prompted the brewery to rapidly convert its canning lines to the new format. Following this success, major breweries across the country adopted the technology, reshaping beverage packaging worldwide.

The can's panels prominently featured promotional text celebrating the breakthrough. Early production runs carried banners announcing the "New Easy Open Snap Top," while subsequent releases proclaimed Iron City as "No. 1 With The Snap Top" after competitors began introducing their own versions.

For collectors, known variations exist across the production run. These variations include text adjustments to the marketing slogans, alterations to the brewery mandatory statements, and early lid revisions where instructional wording and raised smile beads were incorporated adjacent to the tab rivet.