Matt's Premium Lager Beer 12 Oz Tab Top Can

Matt's Premium Lager Tab Top Can

The Matt's Premium Lager Beer 12 oz tab top can is a classic regional breweriana release from the F.X. Matt Brewing Company in Utica, New York. Originally founded in 1888 as The West End Brewing Company by Francis Xavier Matt I, the brewery earned distinction as the first in the United States to receive a license and deliver beer following the repeal of Prohibition.

Bearing the founding family's surname, the Matt's Premium brand served as a centerpiece of the brewery's portfolio alongside regional staples like Utica Club and Fort Schuyler. The can features a classic red, white, and gold design highlighted by traditional brewing crests, wheat and laurel motifs, and bold script branding. Major can manufacturers, including the Reynolds Aluminum Company, produced the containers in all-aluminum formats.

Known variations exist across production runs, reflecting evolving industry standards and regulatory packaging requirements. These variations include differences in mandatory brewery legal text—alternating between crediting the F.X. Matt Brewing Company and citing The West End Brewing Company designation—as well as the presence or absence of Universal Product Code (UPC) barcodes and differing state container deposit markings. The can remains a celebrated artifact of central New York brewing history prior to the facility's later pivot toward its Saranac line.