Silver Bar Premium Lager Beer Flat Top Can

Tampa's Classic Silver Bar Lager

The Silver Bar Premium Lager Beer flat top can represents a defining era in Florida's regional brewing history. Produced by the Southern Brewing Company at its downtown facility on East Zack Street in Tampa, Florida, the Silver Bar label was one of the state's most prominent regional beer offerings.

Brewery History

Southern Brewing Company opened in Tampa in 1934 following the repeal of Prohibition. The downtown plant quickly became a local landmark, celebrated for its architectural design featuring large street-level observation windows that allowed passersby on the sidewalk to look directly into the brewing and bottling rooms. At its operational peak, Southern Brewing turned out tens of thousands of barrels annually, with Silver Bar establishing itself as the brewery's flagship label throughout Florida and the broader Gulf Coast region.

In 1956, Detroit-based conglomerate International Breweries Inc. (IBI) acquired the brewery. While production of the Silver Bar brand continued under the new ownership, the plant faced mounting competition as major national brewing corporations expanded their distribution and production footprints into Florida. International Breweries ultimately shuttered the Tampa facility in 1963.

Can Design and Attributes

The container features mid-century commercial typography alongside the traditional Silver Bar branding. Over the course of the label's canning history, variations were released with different background colorways, distinct manufacturer markings from major can fabricators, and specialty vanity lids bearing regional tax stamps or brewery insignia. Because independent regional breweries in the South largely disappeared during post-war industrial consolidation, cans bearing the Southern Brewing Company nameplate remain important historical artifacts of Florida's commercial brewing heritage.