Tudor Premium Quality Beer Flat Top Can

Tudor Premium Quality Beer Flat Top

The Tudor Premium Quality Beer flat top can is a mid-century 12-ounce container featuring an "Internal Revenue Tax Paid" (IRTP) mandatory statement, placing its production in the late 1940s. The can is distinguished by its silver "TUDOR BEER" typography set against a deep blue shield, accented with metallic gold scrollwork, an armored knight's helmet crest, and a lower ribbon displaying "PREMIUM QUALITY" across a vivid red background.

Tudor was introduced as the dedicated house brand for the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, better known as A&P, one of the nation's leading supermarket chains. Rather than operating company-owned breweries, A&P contracted regional beverage manufacturers across the country to package beer under the Tudor label to supply budget-conscious options for grocery shoppers. The packaging emphasized Old World heritage and dependability through heraldic motifs and traditional lettering. The Tudor brand proved successful, remaining in grocery aisles for decades through various regional contracts.

This early edition was filled by Metropolis Brewery, Inc., operating in New York, New York. The Manhattan brewing site at First Avenue held roots dating back to the 1840s, eventually becoming known as Hermann Koehler & Co. and later the Fidelio Brewery. Following Prohibition and the industrial changes of World War II, the plant was revived in the mid-1940s under the Metropolis name. Metropolis specialized in producing private-label brands and retail contract beers for major supermarket accounts before company brewing shifted to other regional facilities.

In the collecting community, this can represents a key artifact of post-war New York brewing and mid-century grocery retail history. Early store-brand flat tops from the IRTP era remain popular among collectors who focus on regional contract packaging, supermarket private labels, and metropolitan East Coast breweriana.