Schlitz Malt Liquor 12 Oz Tab Top Can

Schlitz Malt Liquor Blue Bull Can

This twelve-ounce crimped steel tab top represents the packaging of Schlitz Malt Liquor during the late 1970s. Key distinguishing features of this release include the presence of a Universal Product Code (UPC) and a mandatory manufacturing statement listing eight brewery cities, including the Jos. Schlitz plant in Memphis, Tennessee. The front of the can features the brand's mascot: a blue charging bull leaping forward from an ornamental circular medallion. The arched Schlitz nameplate crowns the artwork above, while bold lettering for "MALT LIQUOR" anchors the lower band directly above the volume and city declarations.

Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company introduced Schlitz Malt Liquor in 1963 to compete in the expanding market for stronger malt beverages. While initial marketing positioned the drink as an upscale cocktail alternative served over ice, the brewery soon pivoted toward high-energy advertising centered around "The Bull". Throughout the 1970s, popular television advertisements showed live Brahma bulls crashing through walls into everyday scenes to the cry of "Look out for the bull!" Later campaigns featuring musical guest spots and slogans like "Nobody does it like the bull" cemented the mascot in American pop culture, making it one of the top-selling malt liquors nationwide.

The brewery itself dated back to 1849, founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by August Krug. After Krug's death, bookkeeper Joseph Schlitz took over operations, renamed the enterprise in 1858, and subsequently brought Krug's nephews, the Uihlein family, into leadership. Billed as "The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous," Schlitz weathered Prohibition and expanded into a nationwide giant, establishing large automated plants across the country, including the Memphis facility opened in 1971. Production missteps, recipe changes, and a crippling strike in the late 1970s damaged the brand's market share, culminating in Schlitz's purchase by the Stroh Brewery Company in 1982.

For collectors of late-twentieth-century breweriana, the blue bull cans represent an indelible mascot era. The progression of these tab top steel cans offers tangible documentation of shifting mandatory city designations, regional plant operations, and the introduction of retail UPC barcodes on national beer packaging.