Sicks' Select Beer Flat Top Can

Sicks' Select Beer from Salem

This opening instructional flat top can represents a mid-1940s wartime artifact produced by Sicks' Brewing Company in Salem, Oregon. Documented in historical opening-instruction references under catalog entry L759, this twelve-ounce steel container bears an export tax exemption statement printed across its upper shoulder, indicating it was withdrawn free of internal revenue tax for exportation. Such tax-exempt designations were applied to canned rations packaged for shipment to American armed forces personnel stationed overseas during and immediately following World War II. The label layout features a parchment scroll design showcasing the company's bold red numeral "6" emblem centered around a Western Hemisphere globe, complemented by a facsimile signature guarantee from company head Emil G. Sick proclaiming the beer not genuine without the president's signature.

Sicks' Select served as the flagship brand for Emil Sick's multi-plant brewing enterprise, which spanned the Pacific Northwest and western Canada. Positioned as a premium regional lager, the brand was marketed with corporate pride through prominent slogans visible on the can, including "A Sicks' Quality Product" and the ambitious base banner identifying the plant as a "Unit of One of the Worlds Great Brewing Organizations." The brand commanded strong regional loyalty through postwar promotional campaigns before gradually giving way to industry consolidation during the 1950s and 1960s.

The Salem packaging facility carried a deep heritage dating back to 1862, when it was founded as the Pacific Brewery. Later operating as the Klinger-Beck Capital Brewery and reorganizing in 1903 as the Salem Brewery Association, the plant was one of the few Oregon breweries to survive Prohibition. In October 1943, Emil Sick acquired the historic property, renaming it Sicks' Brewing Company on January 1, 1944. Sick overhauled the plant to supply beer for both regional civilians and military distribution. However, fierce postwar competition from national shipping breweries made operating multiple regional branch plants economically difficult, leading Sicks' to permanently close the Salem brewhouse in 1953.

Artifacts from Sicks' Salem outpost hold high significance for regional Pacific Northwest and military breweriana collectors. Because the Salem location operated under the Sicks' nameplate for less than a decade, containers stamped with the Salem mandatory appear on the collector market far less frequently than those from the company's primary Seattle hub. The can's wartime export tax status, instructional format, and colorful mid-century corporate insignia make it an evocative piece of Oregon brewing history.