Old Crown Premium Quality Ale Flat Top Can

Fort Wayne's Old Crown Ale Can

Produced by the Centlivre Brewing Corporation of Fort Wayne, Indiana, the Old Crown Premium Quality Ale flat top can holds a prominent place in mid-century Midwestern breweriana. Centlivre, originally founded in 1862 along Spy Run Avenue by Charles L. Centlivre, was a pioneering regional brewer that became the first in northern Indiana to package its products in metal cans through an early partnership with the American Can Company.

The Old Crown brand served as the brewery's flagship offering. The can design prominently features the regal crown motif alongside the brewery's long-running marketing slogan, "It's Lazy-Aged". This bold heraldic imagery was designed to stand out on retail shelves and project quality.

Among breweriana collectors, this can is especially notable for known variations distributed across different production runs. These variations feature subtle differences in background color schemes, canning plant codes from the manufacturer, and mandatory regulatory statements. Examples displaying the original "Centlivre Brewing Corp." mandatory mark represent the era before the brewery was restructured and renamed as the Old Crown Brewing Corporation. Because Centlivre operated as a regional brewery until shutting its Fort Wayne doors in the early 1970s, these cans remain prized artifacts of Indiana's brewing past.