Old Style Lager Beer Flat Top Can

Old Style Lager Pictorial Flat Top

This 12-ounce flat top beer can represents mid-century packaging produced by the G. Heileman Brewing Company of La Crosse, Wisconsin. Dating from the 1950s, the container is notable for its intricate pictorial lithograph depicting a storybook Old World brewing landscape. Across the illustrated stone terrace, monks gather around a rustic wooden table sampling beer alongside cellar barrels marked with the brand's name, while a team of oxen hauls a cart past an Alpine tavern. A red diagonal banner accents the upper right corner, while the upper left margin explicitly proclaims the recipe's tenets: "Old World Methods – Costly Ingredients," referencing choicest domestic and imported hops, pure Wisconsin water, and natural kraeusening.

G. Heileman Brewing Company first introduced the brand at the turn of the twentieth century. Originally debuted around 1900 as Old Times Lager, a trademark dispute prompted the brewery to officially rename the beverage Old Style Lager in 1902. Marketed as a traditional, high-quality German-style beer, Old Style highlighted its kraeusening process—a classic secondary fermentation technique that created natural carbonation. Through sustained regional advertising and sports associations, Old Style evolved into an Upper Midwest cultural staple, particularly in Wisconsin and the greater Chicago area, and remains in active distribution.

The G. Heileman Brewing Company originated in 1858 when German immigrant Gottlieb Heileman joined John Gund to establish the City Brewery in La Crosse. Following Heileman's death in 1878, his widow Camilla Heileman assumed control, steering the operation into one of the region's leading producers. The company survived Prohibition by producing near-beer, soda water, and malt syrup, entering the post-repeal landscape ready to scale up. Over the mid-to-late twentieth century, aggressive acquisitions elevated Heileman into one of the largest brewing conglomerates in the United States before corporate consolidation in the 1990s ended independent production.

Pictorial flat tops from this era remain standout favorites among breweriana enthusiasts. This can exemplifies mid-century commercial lithography, where intricate narrative illustration and Old World imagery were leveraged directly on steel packaging to communicate artisan heritage.