Kc's Best Premium Pilsner Beer 12 Oz Tab Top Can

KC's Best Premium Pilsener Tab Top

This 12-ounce straight steel tab top can represents the final era of production for the historic Storz Brewing Company of Omaha, Nebraska. Produced during the early 1970s pull-tab period, this can is identified by the placement of its volume statement, with "CONTENTS 12 FLUID OUNCES" positioned directly across the bottom front panel. Framing the clean white label field, a red upper band features three white stars, while the matching lower crimson banner highlights the brewing slogan reading "...MELLOWED AND BALANCED."

Marketed as a crisp regional offering, KC's Best Premium Pilsener was distributed across the Midwest and Missouri River basin to compete in the value and mid-tier lager segment. The brand was defined by its sweeping logo graphic, featuring intertwined lettering with detailed grain stalks embedded inside the strokes and "BEST" enclosed within the lower red banner underline. As regional breweries faced stiff competition from large national shipping brands during the consolidation wave of the 1970s, the brand was eventually retired.

The Storz Brewing Company traced its origin to the 1860s in North Omaha, rising to prominence after German immigrant Gottlieb Storz joined the firm and took full ownership in the 1880s. Storz developed a major brewing complex along North 16th Street, establishing the company as one of Omaha's celebrated "Big 4" breweries alongside Krug, Metz, and Willow Springs. After weathering Prohibition, Storz rebounded strongly and grew to become the highest-selling brewery in Nebraska through the World War II era and postwar boom. The Storz family operated the enterprise until selling it in 1966, after which the plant operated under new ownership until finally closing in 1972.

For breweriana collectors, KC's Best is an attractive piece of Great Plains brewing history from the twilight years of Omaha's historic packaging plants. The brand remains memorable among Midwestern collectors, with regional chapters of the Brewery Collectibles Club of America even adopting the KC's Best moniker as an homage to the classic label.