The Beer Can - 1935 Beginnings

The first beer can hit the market in January 1935 and was an instant success for the Krueger Brewing Co of Newark, NJ.  Within months other brewers, including Pabst, rushed to can their beer. The first cans were flattop cans with opening instructions printed on the side of the can showing how to use the newly invented "churchkey" (See the Hamm's can at left and below).  These cans were heavy - weighing in at over 3-1/2 ounces empty!  The Hamm's is a typical pre-WWII flattop with the word beer printed as large as the brand name and a side panel showing a picture of how to punch a hole in the lid.  In addition, as was common on early cans, text on the label touts how well the "modern" beer can protected the contents.

Collectors call these cans "OI cans", short for "opening instructions" or simply "instructionals"  Although most OI cans disappeared before WWII, several brewers still included the instruction panel on their cans until the early 1950s.  Besides the heavy construction, opening instructions, and the text promoting the container, one other line of text helps date a beer can--somewhere on every beer can made between late 1935 and March 1950, the words "Internal Revenue Tax Paid" or very similar wording will be found.  On the Hamm's can below, look just above the bottom rim.

One can company, Continental Can, decided a can with a familar bottle cap would be more popular, and in August 1935, a conetop can sealed with a bottle cap and containing Schlitz lager was introduced to the public. A few months later, Heileman Brewing of LaCrosse, Wisconsin put their Old Style beer into the cone top can.  The first Continental cone tops were what collectors call FBIR cones (flat-bottom, inverted rib conetops).  As can be seen below, the can had flat bottom and the ribs on the cone are sunk in. The height of the cone on the early cone top was also lower than later versions and collectors refer to these early lower cones as Low Profile or LP cones.  The flat bottom and inverted rib design lasted until September 1936, and then Continental redesigned the can to have raised ribs on the cone and a concave bottom.  This makes it very easy to date a FBIR cone - they all were produced in a one year span from August 1935 to September 1936.  The Heileman can below, while among the most common FBIR cones, is one of my favorite cans because it is one that I know where it was drank and then found.  In this case, it was one of several consumed by a farmer in rural northeastern Nebraska sometime in 1936, then pitched into the crawl space beneath his house.  There it remained for 60 years, until a plumber crawled beneath the house to make some repairs and found the empty cans.  The dry climate and shelter of the crawl space preserved the can without much rust (the archenemy of all steel beer cans).  Incidentally, the cones on the early FBIR cans were not painted or protected and always are rusted or discolored.  Later conetop cans had gold. or rarely, silver painted cones to protect them.   

Time to enjoy a cold one- in moderation as always.  Tonight its a Magic Hat "Roxy-Rollie"  -a dark ale from a good little microbrewery in South Burlington, Vermont- See Ya!!