Iron City Beer 12 Oz Tab Top Can

The Dawn of the Snap-Top Can

The Iron City Beer 12 oz tab top can holds a celebrated place in packaging history and breweriana collecting. Produced by the Pittsburgh Brewing Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this release served as the launchpad for a major turning point in modern beverage packaging.

In 1962, Pittsburgh Brewing Company partnered with the Pittsburgh-based Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) to commercialize a self-opening mechanism adapted from inventor Ermal Fraze. Iron City Beer debuted the new closure—marketed by the brewery as the "New Easy Open Snap Top"—during a market test in Virginia. The response was immediate and historic; sales in the test market soared, quickly prompting Pittsburgh Brewing Company to convert its canned output to the self-opening system. Following this success, breweries across the nation rapidly adopted the technology.

Pittsburgh Brewing Company proudly highlighted this milestone on the container's label. Multiple production runs featured bold promotional banners proclaiming the "Easy-Open Snap Top" and later boasting that Iron City was "No. 1 with the Snap Top". Collectors track several variations across these early issues, including differences in lid stamping instructions, opening rim geometry, and side-panel advertising text added as the brewery refined the presentation. Because it represents the very first commercial application of the pull tab closure on a beer can, the Iron City 12 oz can stands as an essential cornerstone in any historical breweriana collection.