It just makes me realize that when it comes to knowing where a beer was actually brewed and canned, I’m dumber than a box of rocks!
If there’s only one city listed, that’s a safe assumption and I can nail that one!
When multiple cities are listed, wasn’t there some kind of mandate at one time that the actual city doing the brewing had to be listed first?
And then there’s the dot over the city doing the actual brewing. That one’s also piece of cake, for me at least.
What do you do when there’s anywhere up to eleven cities listed for a can on the west coast and a collector on the east coast has the same can but there’s no telltale indication where it was brewed and canned and the brewer has multiple facilities across the continent?
Then there’s that “secret” code as described by Jinsequa in the above mentioned post.
I know that variation collectors have to be able to figure something like this out. Is there any reliable documentation to substantiate any of these assumptions? Is there something that can be assembled as a reference of sorts for this topic?jinsequa
November 2nd, 2019, 6:08 pm
The Pabst code is the key for where it was brewed when it list multiple cities.
A1= Milwaukee (1935-1996)
B2= Peoria Heights (1934-1983)
C3= Newark (1946-1985)
D4= Tumwater (1983-1999)
E5= Pabst, GA & later called Perry, GA (1971-1983)
F6= Initially used for Portland, OR (1978-1993) ( bought twice by Pabst)
F6= then used by Tampa after closure of Portland ( 1983-sold twice by strohs to Pabst from what I can tell over this period-closed 1999)
G7= St. Paul (1983) By far the hardest Pabst code to find since Pabst only owned it for a couple of months after purchasing Olympia’s assets.
? = Los Angeles (1947-1979)
These dates are hard to pin down due to all the sales and resale’s of Pabst breweries in the 1980-90’s. The dates are the best I can pin down without more research. Not sure if LA had a code....need to research that more.
You can also tell the difference between the St. Paul and Tumwater brewed Olympia cans by the National can code. If it has only a 22 under the National can symbol if it was brewed in Tumwater. Most of St. Paul cans were 78 and 84. The other cities I listed were all contract brews at various cities and they have no brewery code.
Eric Palmer
Also just noted that in the USBC,
"The city listed under a can picture is the city where the can was filled. If there's a note saying "X Cities," it means other cities are listed on the can."
Does that mean that the can could be from one of the other cities?
Or is it just enough for dummies like me to just say, “I’ve got that can – it has four cities” and leave it at that?
(MI-Cans)