Schlitz Beer 24 Oz Tab Top Can

Schlitz 1973 24-Ounce "Tall Boy" Can

This straight steel, 24-ounce tab top container represents the oversized three-quarter-quart format issued by the Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company in 1973. Featuring the brand's classic white background and bold red rhombus graphic, the front prominently displays the quoted moniker "Tall Boy" above the longstanding corporate slogan, "The Beer that made Milwaukee Famous". The lower rim carries a 1973 copyright alongside mandatory text cataloging a network of six production cities, including Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Tampa, Florida; and Longview, Texas.

Schlitz stood as one of the preeminent national lager brands of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. During the mid-twentieth century, the brewery actively diversified its packaging line, pioneering the 24-ounce single-serve container and formalizing the "Tall Boy" name on its cans. Backed by influential marketing pushes and slogans like "When you're out of Schlitz, you're out of beer," the flagship label regularly battled for the title of the top-selling beer in the world. While brewing reformulations led to a steep sales downturn later in the 1970s, the Schlitz name was eventually revived as a heritage American lager under the Pabst Brewing Company.

The Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company traced its beginnings to 1849, when August Krug founded a small brewing operation in Milwaukee. Following Krug's death, bookkeeper Joseph Schlitz took over management in 1858. The firm's national prominence soared following the 1871 Great Chicago Fire, when Schlitz sent hundreds of barrels of beer and fresh water to aid the devastated city. The business endured Prohibition by marketing malt syrup, baker's yeast, and near-beer, emerging ready for massive post-war expansion. By the early 1970s, Schlitz operated modern, high-capacity facilities across the United States before being acquired by the Stroh Brewery Company in 1982.

Oversized straight steel containers occupy a prominent niche in breweriana collecting. This 1973 Schlitz issue is especially prized by collectors because it explicitly prints the iconic "Tall Boy" designation on the face of the can, serving as a classic artifact of large-format convenience packaging before aluminum became the universal industry standard.