By the late 19th century, cans were instrumental in the mass distribution of food, but it wasn’t until 1909 that the American Can Company made its first attempt to can beer. This was unsuccessful, and they would have to wait for the end of Prohibition in the United States before another attempt. Finally in 1933, after two years of research, American Can developed a can that was pressurized and had a special coating to prevent the carbonated beer from chemically reacting with the tin.

The concept of canned beer proved to be a hard sell, but Krueger’s overcame its initial reservations and became the first brewer to sell canned beer in the United States. The response was overwhelming. Within three months, over 80 percent of distributors were handling Krueger’s canned beer, and Krueger’s was eating into the market share of the “big three” national brewers–Anheuser-Busch, Pabst and Schlitz. Competitors soon followed suit, and by the end of 1935, over 200 million cans had been produced and sold.

The purchase of cans, unlike bottles, did not require the consumer to pay a deposit. Cans were also easier to stack, more durable and took less time to chill. As a result, their popularity continued to grow throughout the 1930s, and then exploded during World War II, when U.S. brewers shipped millions of cans of beer to soldiers overseas. After the war, national brewing companies began to take advantage of the mass distribution that cans made possible, and were able to consolidate their power over the once-dominant local breweries, which could not control costs and operations as efficiently as their national counterparts.

Through the 1940’s, Sebewaing Beer was sold in various barrel sizes and bottles.  The first cans were distributed in May 1950.  The initial light brown and red can design is pictured at the top of this post.  It required a church key style opener.  After the can was opened, it would look something like the top of the can pictured, one hole for letting the beer out and a second for replacing the beer with air.