Om Genuine Dark Lager Beer Test Can

Longview OM Dark Lager Prototype

The Om Genuine Dark Lager Beer Test Can from the Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company facility in Longview, Texas, represents an experimental phase in the brewery's product packaging and brand development. During regional production expansions across the southern United States, Schlitz used its Longview canning lines to test new branding concepts, ink formulations, and graphic treatments before committing them to large-scale retail distribution.

This can was created as an exploratory extension of the Old Milwaukee (OM) brand portfolio into the dark lager market segment. Rather than being sold through standard retail channels, sample runs of this design were produced in limited quantities exclusively for internal corporate evaluation, focus groups, and packaging line calibration. The Jos. Schlitz Container Division and partnering can manufacturers utilized these prototypes to assess lithographic printing quality, seam integrity, and mandatory brewery text placement.

For breweriana collectors, test cans originating from the Longview plant offer a direct look into the industrial design history of the Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company. Variations exist across these experimental runs, featuring subtle differences in text alignment, factory registration marks, and city mandatory listings. Because most experimental brewery packaging was archived internally or discarded following quality reviews, surviving examples of this test can are sought after by collectors of Texas brewery artifacts and Schlitz brand memorabilia.