Milwaukee Brand Premium Beer Flat Top Can

Hammonton's Milwaukee Brand Beer

This flat top can represents an interesting chapter in East Coast contract packaging, marketed under the brewery name Waukee in Hammonton, New Jersey. The Waukee imprint served as a trade alias for the prolific Eastern Brewing Corporation, a regional operation well known for its extensive lineup of value-priced labels, store brands, and contract brews.

Regional Illusion and Marketing

During mid-century brewing expansion, contract packaging plants frequently employed evocative geographical branding to capture instant credibility in retail markets. By branding the beverage as Milwaukee Brand and packaging it under the abbreviated Waukee alias, the southern New Jersey brewery cleverly referenced Milwaukee, Wisconsin—the historic epicenter of American brewing heritage—despite the product being brewed and canned entirely in New Jersey.

Label Characteristics and Construction

The can features an enamel paint finish over steel, constructed with a glued side seam. The graphic design balances bold red lettering against a clean white background, framed at the top and bottom by gold bands with black pinstripes. A prominent feature noted by collectors is the repetition of the volume statement—CONTENTS 12 FLUID OUNCES appears within both the upper and lower gold bands.

Additional notable design elements visible on the face include:

• Diagonal Red Banners: Slanted red ribbons accent the top and bottom edges, carrying traditional marketing declarations emphasizing "BREWED WITH IMPORTED HOPS & FINEST INGREDIENTS" in the upper ribbon and "BREWED WITH PURE ARTESIAN WELL WATER" in the lower ribbon.
• Central Emblem: A circular crest positioned above the brand name displays a crowned letter "M" bordered by a stylized grain wreath and concentric rings.

Collector Variations

Breweriana collectors recognize variations of this label across different production runs. Differences among known examples include cans finished with metallic backgrounds instead of enamel, differing seam constructions such as soldered seams, and shifts in mandatory brewery text placement.