"Two-cans-in-one" was coined by Gene DiCicco for this beer can. Gene was given ideas to take the label off, but being an experienced collector and knowing the provenance of the can, Gene preserved it as was found by the Clovis couple.

(A slightly short Associated label was obtained with other beer labels by Rawley Douglas BCCA #19952 in a San Francisco antique shop, but later without his permission copies were made; these xerox copies have been seen in collections placed around an unrelated can. Humboldt Malt and Brewing Co had its office at 50 Sutter St and the location of this office may account for the label being found in SF.))

        In early 2008 Herman Oswald reported at the Rusty Bunch website that he and another collector opened a "30's" pit in Northern Calif. at a higher elevation campsite. In the pit along with "usual stuff" were found a number of Associated paper label cans with the remains of their paper labels still attached over a "silver primer". When the silver primer was cleaned off, at least 9 "green" Brown Derby cans were revealed - for an unprecedented group of a previously rarely seen beer can label.

        Herman thinks the campsite pit was of the type used by tourists to the area rather than by local residents. Also for another clue, Herman has described he found, "a couple Coca-Cola soda bottles mixed in with the Brown Derby layer of the pit that had Los Angeles on them, which would indicate possible Southern California tourist influence." When digging, Herman also brings a "Sherlock Holmes" perspective by looking for signs as to the pit's age and who could have been there those many years before.

        Herman has made many top "finds", but this one could be among the "Top 10" for about any year, and possibly for any of several longer time intervals, decade, etc. The Associated paper label can was first seen in Clovis collection in 1971. At the time, it was thought to be "authentic" since part of a beer can group assembled by a couple who picked up cans as they vacationed around Calif. in the 1930's, but many years were needed until 2008 when other examples were dug from a pit to give more confirmation that it was an "authentic" beer can.

        Dan Andrews in April/May, 1994 BCCA Magazine has a "Can Close Up" article on the Brown Derby and Associated paper label cans from Humboldt Malt and Brewing Co. Top

        A is for Aztec Brewing Co. San Diego: (Sept/2011) Per Will Anderson's Beer USA, the Aztec Brewing Company of Mexicali, Mexico in 1932 moved most of its brewing equipment to San Diego in anticipation that the American Prohibition would end. By 1936 it had become the 5th largest brewing company in California after Acme, Rainier, General, and Los Angeles Brewing.

  The Globe Brewing Co.

    A few of Globe Brewing's earlier cans are pictured above. Rarer opening direction cans from Globe are Hopfheiser Beer and Eigenbrot's ale. The brewery filled a variety of cans under the Arrow label, and in the 1950-60's ended with Imperial, Hal's and Arrow 77.  Below is a picture of the brewery along Hanover St. taken by Ernie Oest in 1953.

    Arrow Ale was sold per rustycans.com during 1937-38, and apparently (?) was a marketing venture to convey the image as the beverage of choice for those riding as masters and huntsmen during the fox hunts on farms in Maryland and the Delaware/Pennsylvania "Chateau Country". In general the popularity of "Ale" as a malt beverage category has been highest in the New England states.  As an example for Arrow Ale, in 2011 around half a dozen Arrow Ale cans in grade 1- and lesser conditions were found during a bathroom remodel in the Boston area. Globe Brewing's venture with this graphic label must not have attracted enough of the brewery's regular customers, as later Arrow cans after the 1930s tended to have less graphic designs. Arrow Ale cans in on-grade condition have been very scarce as well as dumper examples which over the years have been highlights to find.   

    Shamrock Ale, per rustycans.com has been rare with around a case known and "all but one are indoor cans which came from a single find" - that "find" was in the late 1970s and most of the cans were partly to heavily scratched.

    Eigenbrot's Beer per rustycans.com was distributed in 1935, and the can was very rare until the late 1990s when a clean example was offered on ebay.  Then over the next 10 years every so often, another Eigenbrot's Beer was offered on ebay - apparently a "find" of around 10 or more (?) had been uncovered.   

    Arrow Bock with its metallic label has been very scarce in top condition, but scattered examples in grade 1 and lesser conditions have been found.  

   Gunther Brewing Co. was across the street from National Brewing, and was an early brewery that canned beer with its Gunther's Beer and Ale labels, plus had a large variety of beer, bock, and ale cans after WW II.  The Gunther's Beer can shown was bought by a Mid-Western collector, who assembled an extensive collection of cans beginning in the early 1980s. He has said the Gunther's was one of his first rarer cans and was bought in 1981 from Frank Byers, an active can collector/seller at the time.  

   American Brewery, Inc.  operated until 1972 in one of the most architecturally interesting brewery buildings in the country, and after being carefully preserved, the building still remains as a landmark for East Baltimore. In contrast to the other larger Baltimore breweries, American only canned beer in one high profile cone and two flat top designs.  

   Free State Brewing was the smallest Baltimore brewery that canned beer, operating until 1949, using a colorful high profile cone with a metallic label. After Free State went out of business, that brewery location became the Wiessner Brewing Company for several years in the early 1950s. 

(rustycans.com's "Beer can of the Month" in February 2007, described the brewery and showed one of the two Wiessner's cans. )

         B is for Boston Light Ale: (June/2012) The Boston Beer Company building was located in "South Boston" at 249 W. 2nd St and had been built in the 1880s or earlier.  Rustycans.com's Can of the Month for April, 2008 has background on the brewery and a picture of a Boston Light Ale crowntainer. Though the brewery remained in business until 1956, it only canned Boston LIght Ale in a J spout and a quart around the 1940 years; a crowntainer with several variations; and "Stock Ale" in a quart during the 1940s - the labels showing a lighthouse are among the more graphic can designs.

         In July, 2002, a J spout example became known to collectors that had been found some years earlier inside an interior wall during renovations of a house in a Boston suburb.  Then a few months later, Tom Leo recalls another top shape example was found by a Rochester area antique dealer that was sold to a nearly breweriana collector.  Tom doesn't think these two J spouts were from the same source since the antique dealer didn't know anything about the other example that had been sold just a few months earlier. 

         (Except for the same name, the "Boston Beer Company" founded in 1984 with its Samuel Adams and other products apparently has no connection with the earlier, long time brewery in Boston.) Top

        For a U.S. city with a population around 260,000 in the 2010 census, Buffalo has among the widest variety of architecturally significant civic/residential structures still in use and has an active Preservationist movement. There is a well organized and extensive website of current photos, historical backgrounds, etc.: "Buffalo as an Architectural Museum".

    Unfortunately in one industrial category, Pre Pro brewery structures, not many are left but the exterior of a good example does remain - part of the original Ziegele/Phoenix Brewery (1888) at Washington and Virginia. This former brewery's exterior walls, well represent a typical design by Otto Wolf of Philadelphia with elaborate brick work, etc.

    After Prohibition the main breweries that returned to making beer were:

----Gerhard Lang Brewery (the largest in Buffalo before Prohibition, once covering over 30 acres at Best and Jefferson) which lasted until 1949.

    and five breweries in East Buffalo, south of Broadway:

    ----Magnus Beck Brewing Co. which lasted until 1955.

    ----Phoenix Brewery, which after Prohibition had relocated to the former "East Buffalo Brewery" building, canned beer briefly in the late 1950's before being bought by International Breweries in 1959; which then reportedly used the plant to brew ale briefly. 

    ----Iroquois Beverage Corp., which in 1955 became the lead brewery of five breweries in several states that joined to become International Breweries, Inc. The Pratt St. brewery in Buffalo was a functional 1890's design that operated until 1971, and still has several buildings standing. 

    ----The William Simon Brewery, farther south on Emslie from Phoenix Brewery, canned beer from the 1950's into the later 1960's.  The Brewery, lasting until 1972, operated in a better-than-average architecturally detailed 1900-era building that is still standing

    ----George F. Stein Brewery, which stopped in 1958, had its brewery building demolished in 1959. The Stein location at 797 Broadway, had been the site of a brewery since 1852. (In the 1920's, part of the former brewery land was taken to realign Smith St. at the intersection with Broadway to match with Herman St. going north.

    Beer cans:

    ----During the 1930's Iroquois Beverage canned Iroquois Beer and Ale in two graphic low profile cones, along with an olive drab J-spout during WWII. 

            The U. S. Beer Cans picture of an Iroquois Half and Half "cone" has been described by New York collector Tom Leo as, "a partial Half and Half sheet that has been rolled."  For some years a BCCA collector, William Breen, knew about an "all original" Iroquois Half and Half cone that was held by a former Iroquois employee; got the cone; and in 2011 passed it to a dealer. As of 2011, there is uncertainty, if and how many, dumper examples of the Iroquois Half and Half cone have been found. 

            After World War II, Iroquois filled a variety of high profile cones and crowntainers.  When International Breweries was formed in 1954, four of the breweries began canning beer in a flat top label that has been called "The TV Screen" design for a number of brands (Iroquois, Silver Bar, Frankenmuth, Old Dutch). Also several local brands were canned with their own labels.   

    ----The William Simon Brewery canned beer in the 1950's and 1960's with its "Simon Pure" label.

    ----The George F. Stein Brewery started canning in the early 1950's and filled six colorful beer and ale cans with the rarest being the early 1950's "Canadian Brand Cream Ale" that has a picture of that brand in a bottle by the seam. In the 1950's and 1960's the Buffalo area saw the importation of many Canadian beers and ales ("dumped" into the Buffalo market?), which was another challenge for Buffalo breweries.  Still to be uncovered is whether the Stein Brewery marketed its "Canadian Ale" to sell in Canada or to give Buffalo ale drinkers a "Canadian style" ale that was produced in Buffalo as an alternative to the Canadian imports.

          The USBC book shows an example of the Canadian Brand Cream Ale flat top.  Tom Leo understands Paul Michel got that Stein's Canadian Ale can from a Buffalo collector.  In the Class Book there is also a picture of the Stein's Canadian Ale example but the can's colors look much brighter than the USBC example and uncertain if there is just one or at least two examples. 

    (Paul Michel was one of the most active 1980's beer can dealers and was located in Buffalo, until he unfortunately died in the later 1980's.  While Paul's father was a coin dealer and Paul grew up knowing all the "dealer angles", he was known to convey many rarer cans to on-going collectors at prices that encouraged their continuing buying, rather than pricing a can for only the one buyer who might appear.)   Top

        C is for Clipper Beer by Grace:  (Sept/2011) In the late 1930's, one of Grace Bros. more colorful brands pictured a Clipper airplane that recently had started commercial flying across the Pacific. Today at Treasure Island in San Franciso Bay,  there is still "Clipper Cove" where these airplanes would float before or after their flights. 

    Clipper flat top beer cans were first found in volume (an estimated 50 or more) by Wally Gilbert under the Wagon Wheel Bar in 1972, but these cans were typically "under the house" condition cans with the best being grade 1-.  However, a much later 2002 attic "find" in West Sacramento had around 13 Clipper cans, one of which is pictured above. However most of these cans, while being rust free, were deeply dented and subsequently have been repaired with a lid replaced. The story on this "find" was described in the April, 2003 BCCA magazine article that included Gene DiCicco's picture with most of the cans from this group.

   ----Cremo Beer J spout "find":
        In 1974, a man in Ledyard, CT began offering top shape Cremo Beer J spouts. Turns out he had saved a case of them, along with several cases of Mule Head Beer and Ale flats, anticipating rationing in what became World War II. 
     As of 2011, on-grade Cremo Beer J's continue to be relatively scarce as that original case saved around 1941, seems to have been the main source of that J spout. With a case or more found around 2000, the Cremo Ale J's are not as rare as are the Cremo Beer J spouts. 
      In off-grade conditions, there is moderately good availability of Cremo Ale J's for collectors, but Cremo Beer J's have been much scarcer in dumper condition.
   
    ----For many years the rarest 12oz Cremo cone has been the Cremo Beer "high profile" cone and one was in Dave Peck's collection (former BCCA #1886). He was an enthusiastic and very active cone collector in the 1970's and early 1980's, going to many shows. While there is uncertainty, he reportedly got that cone from a holder in the St. Louis area. That Cremo Beer "high profile" was pictured in the 1975 BCCA book, and could have been one of the cans in the collection, that included over 90 quarts, gotten by former BCCA members Henry Herbst, Robert Eckert, and Hal Leeker - on that unusual collection, see Greater New York brewery, "New Yorker Ale" subject.
    Dave Peck went to many shows and his home in Lake Forest, IL was a 1957 Edward Dart design. Here is a Business Week article on beer can collecting in 1976, about the height of can collecting popularity in numbers of collectors, highlighted Dave Peck and his collecting.

The Brewery picture was taken by Ernie Oest - one of many photos of brewery buildings Ernie took from the 1940's to 1960's - and provided by Bob Kay.

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