Old Milwaukee Beer 14 Oz Tab Top Can

Old Milwaukee 14 Oz Steel Tab Top

This straight steel tab top container held 14 fluid ounces of Old Milwaukee Beer, an uncommon mid-size volume positioned between the standard 12-ounce can and the 16-ounce tall boy. Marked with a 1973 copyright along the lower rim, the can lists six Jos. Schlitz brewing locations: Longview, Los Angeles, Memphis, Milwaukee, Tampa, and Winston-Salem. A small dot printed above the Winston-Salem text marks the North Carolina plant as the packaging origin. Although earlier references miscaptioned the design to 1975, this version is characterized by the absence of a Universal Product Code (UPC) barcode, dating it to the era just prior to the widespread adoption of retail scanner codes.

Schlitz introduced Old Milwaukee during the mid-twentieth century as a popular-priced companion to its flagship premium lager. Designed to capture price-conscious consumers and compete against regional value brands, Old Milwaukee grew into a major commercial hit. Marketed through memorable advertising campaigns emphasizing rugged, hardworking appeal and full flavor, the brand maintained high production volumes for decades and eventually moved through corporate acquisitions into the Pabst brand family.

The Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company was founded in 1849 by August Krug in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Following Krug's death, bookkeeper Joseph Schlitz took over operations and renamed the enterprise in 1858. The brewery gained national prominence after shipping relief supplies and beer to Chicago during the Great Fire of 1871, fueling its famous slogan, "The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous". In the late 1960s and 1970s, Schlitz expanded nationally with state-of-the-art facilities, opening its large Winston-Salem plant in 1970 to supply the Southeast. Following corporate difficulties and declining sales in the late 1970s, the company was acquired by the Stroh Brewery Company in 1982.

Fourteen-ounce cans represent an intriguing focus area for breweriana collectors, as the capacity was utilized only during select marketing experiments and regional pricing programs. Additionally, cans featuring multi-city imprint lists with plant indicator marks provide collectors with tangible artifacts of Schlitz's nationwide brewing footprint during the tab top era.