Maier Select Beer 12 Oz Tab Top Can

Maier Select Beer Tab Top Can

This 12-ounce straight steel tab top container presents a mid-century iteration of Maier Select Beer from Los Angeles, California. Notable for its repeating red-and-white background pattern composed of stylized hop leaf silhouettes, the front face highlights a large blue hop leaf bearing the inscription "SINCE 1875." Below the emblem, the diagonal script brand lettering and a rectangular white banner reading "SELECT BEER" anchor the graphic presentation. This specific manufacturing variation is characterized by its lighter blue print tones across the typography and central leaf emblem, combined with a wide seam construction along the steel body. Catalogers note that subtle print shifts and seam variations exist among closely related production runs of this design, making fine details such as ink saturation and seam width primary diagnostic points.

The Maier Select brand served as an enduring staple for the company across several decades. Rooted in the brewery’s nineteenth-century lineage, Select was positioned as an approachable, dependable regional lager tailored for everyday consumers throughout Southern California. The brand remained a familiar presence on supermarket shelves and at neighborhood taverns, maintaining loyal regional popularity even as local brewers faced intensifying market pressure from expanding national brewing empires.

The Maier Brewing Company traced its origin to 1875, operating out of the historic Philadelphia Brewery site on Commercial Street in downtown Los Angeles. In 1882, Joseph Maier and George Zobelein partnered to expand the business, forming the Maier & Zobelein Brewery. Following an acrimonious split between the partners in 1907, the downtown plant continued forward as the Maier Brewing Company. The brewery weathered Prohibition—enduring federal raids before repeal—and adapted to the modern marketplace by emphasizing high-volume, value-oriented regional beers. Later acquired by General Brewing in the early 1970s, the facility stood as an iconic landmark of industrial Los Angeles until the plant closed its doors for good.

For breweriana enthusiasts, this Maier Select can offers a vibrant snapshot of Southern California's brewing heritage. Because regional producers frequently alternated between can manufacturers, seam designs, and color calibrations during the tab top era, this can serves as a classic artifact documenting West Coast industrial packaging evolution.