Nu-deal Beer Flat Top Can

Grace Bros. Nu-Deal Beer Flat Top

The Nu-Deal Beer flat top can is a pre-World War II container produced for Grace Bros. Brewing Company of Santa Rosa, California. Dating to the late 1930s opening-instruction era, this twelve-ounce steel can features the mandatory Internal Revenue Tax Paid (IRTP) statement printed along its left seam. Its graphic design is anchored by an arched state regulatory declaration reading "PERMIT CALIF. U-1114" above a circular emblem with a split red-and-white star. A banner across the lower section provides the serving recommendation "COOL BEFORE SERVING," balanced by a net contents declaration across the upper face.

Introduced during the latter half of the Great Depression, the Nu-Deal brand was created to tap into the public familiarity and optimism surrounding the era's New Deal recovery programs. Grace Bros. marketed the label across Northern and Central California as an approachable, standard lager. Like many Depression-era topical brands, Nu-Deal saw a relatively brief production run, gradually being phased out around the onset of World War II as material shortages prompted breweries to streamline their product rosters.

Grace Bros. Brewing Company was established in Santa Rosa in 1897 when brothers Frank and Joseph Grace acquired an existing local brewing property. The enterprise quickly expanded to become one of the premier industrial operations in Sonoma County, operating its own bottling plant, rail spurs, and cold-storage operations. When national Prohibition took effect, the company remained active through commercial refrigeration, ice manufacture, and non-alcoholic beverages. Upon Repeal in 1933, the brewery modernized its equipment and re-entered the market aggressively, becoming an early adopter of canned beer packaging on the Pacific Coast. Although the company expanded into additional California markets through the 1940s, intense competition from national mega-breweries ultimately led to the closure of the Santa Rosa plant in the late 1960s.

Among breweriana enthusiasts, early West Coast instructional flat tops are particularly sought after. The Nu-Deal can stands out in this category for its bold patriotic styling and explicit cultural connection to 1930s America. Its combination of pre-war can construction, regional California origin, and historic graphic appeal makes it a standout piece within early canned beer history.