Menominee Champion Light Beer Cone Top Can

Menominee Champion Cone Top Can

The Menominee Champion Light Beer 12-ounce cone top can represents mid-twentieth-century regional packaging from Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Manufactured with a high-profile cone top and sealed with a crown cap, the container bears an Internal Revenue Tax Paid statement that places its production in the era prior to 1950. The label layout features crisp horizontal banding, the brewery's trademark eagle crest encircled within a circular logo, and the bold red tagline "THE BEST WHAT IS" positioned alongside the angled brand typography.

Menominee Champion was marketed as a premier regional light beer following the repeal of Prohibition. The brand adopted the distinctive local slogan "The Best What Is," a phrase originally coined in the area during the late nineteenth century by predecessor operations. Targeted primarily at laborers, loggers, and residents across northern Michigan and Wisconsin, Menominee Champion was among the brewery's earliest packaged canned offerings. By the early 1950s, the company adjusted its canning line to prioritize its Silver Cream brand, leading to the retirement of the Champion cone top.

The Menominee-Marinette Brewing Company trace its roots to nineteenth-century establishments in Menominee, Michigan, including the Leisen & Henes Brewing Company and the Menominee River Brewing Company. During Prohibition, operations adapted by producing near beer and non-alcoholic beverages under the United Beverage Company name. In 1933, the business was reorganized as the Menominee-Marinette Brewing Company, taking its identity from the twin border cities on the Michigan-Wisconsin line. Operating as an independent regional brewery, it supplied local markets for nearly three decades before facing relentless competition from large national shipping breweries, ultimately closing in 1961.

Cone top containers from Upper Peninsula breweries hold an important place in breweriana collecting. Representing smaller production runs from isolated industrial communities, these cans preserve the commercial art, packaging formats, and distinct identities of mid-century local American brewing.