Tudor Premium Quality Beer Flat Top Can

A&P's Classic Tudor Beer from Hornell

This 12-ounce flat top container represents a mid-century release of Tudor Beer, bearing the mandatory brewing and packaging statement for Hornell Brewing of Hornell, New York. The can features the regal Tudor design, characterized by a stylized crown atop an ornate heraldic shield framed by scrollwork. A prominent white ribbon banner runs across the lower portion of the central shield bearing the slogan "PREMIUM QUALITY" in bold, sans-serif block lettering.

Tudor was created as the signature private-label house brand for the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, commonly known as A&P. First introduced in the late 1940s to supply supermarket shelves with an economical yet attractive house brand, Tudor expanded rapidly across the eastern United States during the 1950s. Instead of operating its own breweries, A&P contracted regional brewers across multiple states to package the brand under standardized, shared artwork.

The facility behind this can traced its origins to the late 19th-century Schwarzenbach Brewing Company in Hornell. After Prohibition forced the original operation to close, it reopened in 1934 following Repeal as the Hornell Brewing Company. For decades, the plant supplied western and central New York with regional favorites such as Old Ranger Beer and Ale alongside various contract products. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, the brewery affiliated with the Metropolis Brewery group before ultimately closing its Hornell plant doors in the mid-1960s.

For breweriana collectors, mid-century supermarket labels hold a revered place in regional packaging history. Tudor cans are particularly well-liked due to their classic mid-century graphic styling and the intriguing web of regional contract brewers that packaged identical label designs in different states. Finding examples credited to smaller regional plants like Hornell provides a tangible link to New York's historic post-Prohibition brewing landscape.