Schaefer America's Oldest Lager Beer 12 Oz Tab/Stay Top Can

Schaefer America's Oldest Lager Can

This 12-ounce drawn-and-ironed can represents a distinctive chapter in the packaging history of the F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company. What immediately stands out to packaging researchers is the brewery mandatory printed along the bottom rim, listing only two production locations: Baltimore, Maryland, and Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. The face of the can features Schaefer’s classic circular medallions set against a white ground. The upper yellow circle displays the venerable claim "America's Oldest Lager Beer," positioned directly above a medallion showcasing a wheat stalk backdrop and the red oval Schaefer brandmark. Flanking these are companion medallions carrying historic slogans, including "Established in the United States 1842," "A family tradition for two centuries," and "Our hand has never lost its skill." While catalog documentation typically illustrates this can with a pull tab, stay-tab variations are also known for this label.

The Schaefer brand originated when Prussian immigrant brothers Frederick and Maximilian Schaefer acquired a Manhattan brewery in 1842. The company positioned itself as the nation's earliest commercial lager brewery, quickly finding favor among New York's growing German immigrant population and eventually expanding into a regional powerhouse. In the mid-twentieth century, Schaefer became famous for its memorable advertising campaigns, most notably the catchy refrain "the one beer to have when you're having more than one." As the national brewers expanded in the 1970s, Schaefer struggled to defend its market share, and the brand was eventually acquired by the Stroh Brewery Company in 1981 before later passing into the Pabst portfolio.

The brewery itself operated out of New York for over a century, navigating Prohibition by producing near-beer and soda before expanding its operations at a large waterfront facility in Brooklyn. Looking to modernize, Schaefer opened an ultra-modern brewery in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley in 1972, adding to existing plants in Baltimore and Brooklyn. However, mounting competitive pressures and heavy debt forced the painful closure of the historic Brooklyn facility in early 1976. This consolidation left Lehigh Valley and Baltimore as the company's only remaining operational plants, explaining the two-city mandatory text found on this can.

For collectors of East Coast breweriana, this can represents an important artifact of the 1970s brewing industry. The shift to a two-city legal line marks the end of Schaefer's historic brewing presence in New York, while the crossover between pull tab and stay top openings reflects the rapid evolution of can top technology during the era.