Utica Club Xx Pilsener Lager Beer Cone Top Can

Utica Club XX Pilsener Cone Top

This 12-ounce cone top container was produced for the West End Brewing Company of Utica, New York. A defining attribute of this specific variation is the traditional German brewing proverb printed in red along the upper collar band: "HOPFEN UND MALZ-GOTT ERHALT'S" ("Hops and malt, may God preserve them"). The label also features the mandatory Internal Revenue Tax Paid (IRTP) statement, placing its manufacturing era prior to the nationwide repeal of federal beer tax markings in 1950.

During Prohibition (1920–1933), the brewery remained in business by creating soft drinks, ginger ale, and non-alcoholic malt tonics under the new moniker "Utica Club". When the 21st Amendment brought the end of Prohibition in December 1933, the company obtained the very first federal permit issued in the nation and immediately began legal deliveries, making Utica Club famously recognized as the first legal beer sold post-repeal. The Utica Club line expanded throughout the Northeast, later popularized by mid-century mascot steins Schultz and Dooley and remaining a regional institution for decades.

West End Brewing Company was established in 1888 by German immigrant Francis Xavier Matt, who reorganized the former Charles Bierbauer Brewery on Varick Street. Under the leadership of the Matt family, West End weathered the intense consolidation of the American brewing industry following World War II by adapting product lines, offering brewery tours, and modernizing operations. Eventually renaming itself the F.X. Matt Brewing Company, the operation introduced the craft-focused Saranac brand in 1985 and remains one of the longest-running family-owned breweries in the country.

In breweriana collecting, early Utica Club cone tops are celebrated artifacts of upstate New York's rich brewing heritage. Cone top containers bearing historic German brewing slogans and tax-paid statements are especially prized by regional collectors and enthusiasts tracing the timeline of post-Prohibition canned beer packaging.