Old Milwaukee Genuine Draft Test Can

1971 Old Milwaukee Draft Test Can

Dating to 1971, this 12-ounce straight steel tab top container is a test market prototype produced for the Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company. The front face features an upper banner displaying the phrase "GENUINE DRAFT BEER" directly over the brand name set against an intricate crimson patterned field. Below, the stylized crest emblem rests above the formal Jos. Schlitz script. Along the lower rim, the copyright text establishes its manufacturing roots, listing Longview, Texas as the lead location among eight brewery cities.

Schlitz initially introduced the Old Milwaukee label in the late nineteenth century before shelving it prior to Prohibition. In the 1950s, the brewery resurrected Old Milwaukee as a value-priced brand engineered to compete against popular-tier offerings from regional and national rivals. Positioned around authentic draft character and solid working-class value, Old Milwaukee grew into one of the top-selling beers across the United States. It remained a staple American budget brand through successive corporate transitions, including ownership under the Stroh Brewery Company and later the Pabst Brewing Company.

The Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company traces its origins back to 1849, when August Krug established a small brewery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Following Krug's death, Joseph Schlitz took command of the operation and helped propel it to national prominence, famously sending relief shipments of beer to Chicago after the 1871 Great Chicago Fire. Proclaiming itself "The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous," Schlitz expanded aggressively in the mid-twentieth century by opening and acquiring modern brewing plants across the country, including the facility in Longview, Texas. After decades as one of the world's largest brewing powerhouses, shifting consumer tastes, recipe modifications, and labor disputes led to the company's eventual purchase by Stroh in 1982.

Among breweriana collectors, test cans and experimental prototypes from the early 1970s provide valuable insight into brewery design processes and packaging rollouts. Cans bearing specific multi-city mandatory variations and trial labeling from regional packaging hubs represent important historical artifacts of twentieth-century American commercial brewing.