Maier Select Beer Cone Top Can

Maier Select Beer Cone Top

Manufactured during the mid-twentieth-century Internal Revenue Tax Paid era, this twelve-ounce high-profile cone top was packaged under Continental Can Company's "Cap-Sealed" format. The side panel prominently includes the mandatory federal statement, "Tax paid at rate prescribed by Internal Revenue Law," dating its production between the end of Prohibition and 1950. The panel text explicitly advertises the Cap-Sealed container to consumers while celebrating the brewery's long heritage, declaring the brew to be the "product of master brewers since 1875" produced with "modern scientific equipment."

Maier Select stood as the premier flagship offering for its producer, tracing its lineage back to the early 1900s when it was originally marketed as Maier Select Pale. During Prohibition, the brewery sustained brand awareness by adapting the name for cereal beverages and medicinal malt tonics before restoring the full-strength lager to the market in 1935. Promoted across Southern California as "the FAVORED beer," Maier Select was positioned as a mellow, fully aged beverage aimed at broad regional appeal.

The brewery's origins trace to downtown Los Angeles in the 1870s, evolving from early local operations into the Maier & Zobelein Brewery by 1882. Following a split between George Zobelein and founder Joseph Maier's heirs in 1907, the facility on East Commercial Street became the Maier Brewing Company. Under the leadership of Joseph's son Fred Maier, the brewery expanded distribution and built strong civic ties, even establishing the local Vernon Tigers baseball team. The brewery weathered federal raids during Prohibition and rebounded post-repeal. In 1958, brewing magnate Paul Kalmanovitz acquired the company, guiding its production through the national beer wars until its Los Angeles plant ultimately closed in the 1970s.

For breweriana enthusiasts, this Maier Select cone top is a classic representative of Southern California's mid-century brewing landscape. It serves as a tangible record of Los Angeles industrial history and the early era of canned packaging on the Pacific coast.