This time featured on the Breweriana Spotlight we will look at the elusive Sunshine Bock Beer Can.
The Sunshine Bock Beer Can was made by the Sunshine Brewing Company located in Reading, PA. This Sunshine Bock Can is from 1951 and is in excellent condition for it’s age. The Sunshine Brewing Company didn’t can it’s bock beer for very long. It was only brewed bock beer prior to prohibition under the previous brewery name of Barbey’s Inc. Brewery; then again from 1951 up until the brewery closed in 1970. Most of this beer was bottled in short brown “steinie” bottles with a Sunshine Bock Beer label; click here to view the bottle and label from my personal collection. They also packaged in a short run of Sunshine Bock Beer Flat Top Cans during the 1950’s.
From research done, I found out that the Sunshine Brewery contracted the American Can Company located in Manhattan, NY to print this can under it’s Keglined brand name. They only made one print run of this bock beer can which equates to approximately between 5,000 – 10,000 cans in total. These cans were then filled and dispersed to the masses among states like Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New York. The Sunshine Brewery promoted Sunshine Bock Beer with various advertising items like cardboard signs, tin signs, ball tap knobs, newspaper ads, and lithographs just to name a few.
The goat head in the top left corner of the front of the can is the Bavarian symbol for the season of Spring for which Bock Beer is generally brewed for. Citizens of Munich pronounced “Einbeck” as “ein Bock” which translates to “a billy goat”; thus the beer became known as “bock”. To this day as a visual pun, the goat appears on most bock beer labels and advertising. Imagery of goats and beer are used a lot with various brewery advertising; among the items like lithographs, tin signs, cardboard signs, porcelain, mugs, labels, and cans just to name a few.
Below are a few examples of bock beer advertising:
