State Fair Premium Beer 12 Oz Zip Top Can

Shamokin's State Fair Zip Top

Manufactured in the early 1960s, this 12-ounce straight-steel zip top can represents the transitional era when self-opening pull tabs were first introduced to beer packaging. The label artwork is distinguished by its central red and blue shield emblem surrounded by finely detailed red line illustrations celebrating early modes of transportation, including a pioneer biplane, a full-rigged sailing ship, a high-wheel bicycle, and a hot-air balloon. Along the seam, the mandatory statement verifies that the beverage was packed by the Fuhrmann & Schmidt Brewing Company of Shamokin, Pennsylvania.

Fuhrmann & Schmidt marketed State Fair Premium Beer during the post-World War II period to diversify its portfolio alongside its core labels. Styled with nostalgic Americana motifs, the brand evoked traditional community gatherings, county fairs, and early technological innovation. Positioned as an approachable regional beer, it provided consumers in central and eastern Pennsylvania with an everyday value option before being phased out prior to the brewery's final years of production.

The Fuhrmann & Schmidt Brewing Company held a storied place in Pennsylvania's Anthracite coal region. Tracing its heritage back to the Eagle Brewing Company founded in 1854, the company was reorganized under the Fuhrmann & Schmidt name in 1906 at Commerce and Washington Streets in Shamokin. The brewery navigated Prohibition by pivoting to near-beer, soda bottling, and ice storage, returning to full-scale brewing immediately after Repeal in 1933. Despite maintaining strong local loyalty through the mid-century, growing pressure from national macrobreweries led to its purchase by Philadelphia’s Henry F. Ortlieb Brewing Company in 1966, followed by the permanent closure of the Shamokin facility in 1975.

Within the breweriana community, this can remains a popular mid-century piece. It is particularly valued by Pennsylvania regional specialists and collectors of early self-opening cans who appreciate its distinctive transportation line-art imagery and its direct link to Shamokin’s industrial brewing legacy.