Schlitz Lager Beer Cone Top Can

Schlitz Lager Flat Bottom Cone

This twelve-ounce container represents the earliest generation of cone top packaging manufactured by the Continental Can Company, marketed under the proprietary "Cap-Sealed" format. Recognized by its low-profile cone neck featuring inverted ribs and an early flat bottom seam, this can carries an Internal Revenue Tax Paid (IRTP) tax statement alongside a mandatory declaration indicating 4-3/4% alcohol by volume. Originating in the mid-1930s following the end of Prohibition, the can presents rich brown lithography framed by yellow trim bands, prominently displaying the cursive brewery trademark across the face directly above the bold block lettering for "LAGER."

Schlitz anchored its national identity around the slogan printed along the lower face: "the BEER that made Milwaukee famous." The famed slogan traced its roots to the aftermath of the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, when the brewery shipped hundreds of barrels of fresh drinking water and beer southward to aid relief efforts. Formally trademarked in the 1890s, the phrase powered nationwide advertising campaigns for generations. Schlitz positioned its flagship lager as an upscale, universally recognized standard of American brewing, eventually reigning as one of the country's dominant brands before controversial recipe reformulations in the 1970s severely diminished market share, leading to the label's eventual sale to rival brewing conglomerates.

The Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company originated in 1849 when German immigrant August Krug established a small brewery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Following Krug's passing, brewery bookkeeper Joseph Schlitz assumed control and renamed the firm before perishing in an 1875 shipwreck, leaving management to the Uihlein family. Under their leadership, Schlitz emerged alongside Pabst, Blatz, and Miller as one of Milwaukee's brewing powerhouses. The company successfully navigated Prohibition by marketing near-beer, malt syrup, and baker's yeast, returning quickly to commercial brewing upon Repeal and rising to become the top-selling brewery in America by the early 1950s. A combination of crippling labor strikes and quality disputes triggered a sharp decline in the late 1970s, culminating in the brewery's sale to the Stroh Brewery Company in 1982.

For breweriana collectors, low-profile inverted-rib flat bottom cone tops hold major historical standing. They embody the opening salvos of the fierce packaging race launched in late 1935 between can manufacturers vying to deliver viable metal beer containers. Because Schlitz served as an early showcase brewery for Continental Can't sealed-cone innovation, these pre-war cans remain foundational milestones in packaging history.