Old Milwaukee Beer 14 Oz Tab Top Can

1975 Old Milwaukee 14 Oz Tab Top Can

This 14-ounce crimped steel tab top container dates to 1975, capturing an era when major American macrobreweries experimented with intermediate packaging volumes. Bearing a 1975 copyright line, the can features an early Universal Product Code (UPC) alongside its traditional graphics, marking the retail industry's transition toward automated checkout systems in the mid-1970s. The lower margin lists six production locations, with an identification dot placed over Memphis, Tennessee, indicating that this specific container was packaged at Schlitz's high-capacity southern facility. In earlier collector documentation, this variation was grouped under a broader listing before being assigned its own specific catalog designation.

Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company initially used the Old Milwaukee moniker around the turn of the twentieth century before formally reintroducing it in the 1950s as a popular-priced label. Positioned to compete with budget-friendly regional brews without sacrificing high-volume market appeal, Old Milwaukee became a massive commercial success. Supported by memorable marketing campaigns and enduring slogans such as "Taste as great as its name" and "It doesn't get any better than this," the brand became a staple across the country, remaining a cornerstone American lager brand under subsequent owners Stroh and Pabst.

The Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company originated in 1849 when August Krug opened a small tavern brewery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Joseph Schlitz took over operations in 1856 and incorporated the business under his own name in 1858. Billing itself as the brewer of "The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous," Schlitz grew through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to become one of the largest brewing empires in the world. To meet expanding national sales, the company opened several expansive satellite breweries, including the Memphis facility in 1971. A combination of controversial recipe alterations, labor strikes, and fierce market competition in the late 1970s severely eroded market share, resulting in the company's sale to the Stroh Brewery Company in 1982.

Within breweriana collecting, 14-ounce containers hold special appeal because non-standard capacities were typically distributed in selective regional territories rather than nationwide. Enthusiasts value these cans for documenting branch plant dot variations, changing regulatory texts, and mid-1970s packaging innovations.