Senate Bock Flat Top Can

Chr. Heurich's Senate Bock Flat Top

This 12-ounce flat top container dates to the mid-1940s and was manufactured for the Christian Heurich Brewing Company of Washington, D.C. Along the lower gold rim, the mandatory "INTERNAL REVENUE TAX PAID" statement identifies the can as a product of the post-repeal, pre-1950 period before federal tax-paid marking requirements were discontinued. The label graphics feature Heurich's emblem set within a red diamond near the upper rim—a hop leaf monogrammed with an "H" overlaid upon the Washington Monument. Gilded grain stalks and hop bines frame the central green field behind a diagonal ribbon carrying the familiar "Senate" script, anchored below by bold red lettering reading "Bock Beer".

Heurich introduced the Senate brand during the 1890s, rapidly establishing it as the capital city's favorite domestic brew. While pale Senate lager remained the brewery's standard volume product, Senate Bock was released annually as a springtime seasonal. Local newspaper advertisements promoted the bock as a rich, traditional harbinger of spring. Although the seasonal style had been a mainstay in kegs and bottles since the late nineteenth century, its presence in canned form proved short-lived as packaging priorities shifted in the post-war era.

Christian Heurich, an immigrant trained in the classical breweries of Bavaria and Austria, founded his brewery in 1872. Following an 1892 blaze at the original facility, he constructed a massive, fireproof complex in Foggy Bottom along the Potomac River, where the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts stands today. The brewery was the largest private employer in the District outside the federal government. When local prohibition struck Washington in 1917—several years ahead of nationwide dry laws—Heurich navigated the drought through apple cider and commercial ice manufacturing. After Repeal, it stood as the District of Columbia’s sole remaining production brewery, holding out against expanding national shipping brands until finally shuttering in 1956.

For breweriana enthusiasts, this can holds special historical resonance. Because Washington, D.C. supported very few local packaging breweries into the mid-twentieth century, containers bearing a District of Columbia line are avidly sought. Furthermore, seasonal bock beers were filled in far smaller quantities than standard lagers, making surviving tax-paid examples from Heurich prized touchstones of capital brewing history.