OT. Nostalgia Beer Cans

Anybody remember beer cans prior to the pull tabs? The cans were opened with a device called a "church key" The sophidticated (veteran) beer drinker would make two openings in the top of the can to allow for a vent to insure faster drinking. I recall one novice (underage) drinker who wanted to appear a more experienced drinker who made two holes and was tipping the can back nore like the big boys and ended up spilling beer in her face. These were the steel cans.I also vagely remenber the steel cans with pry off caps.

And some Chevy pickups had a place on the steering colume that worked as a bottle opener.

You don't have to be all that old to remember back when you needed a can opener. I am 46 and can remember that. Now I was not drinking beer out of those cans. Between then and now there were the pull tab cans where you pulled a ring that left an opening in the can.

Grandmothers old house in loomis, CA had a place under the house where all the trash was thrown it was full of Acme Beer cans that had a small screw cap on top.

Walt

Those are called cone tops and Ive seen them sell for over $100 each back in the late 70s

Inside door hinge on the 60's Ford trucks.

Dale(MO)

Yessir, there was just such a place on the steering column of my "three-on-the-tree" '62 Bel Air...

Yes , and the openning was tear drop shaped.

Marine Corps belt buckle always did the trick with bottles. I was looking for a church key the other day and no one even knew what I was talking about...I must be getting old! Bought one the other day for 79 cents...they used to be free. How about Reingold "CHUG-A-MUGS"?

70 Chevelle SS seat belt end worked well on bottles. Back then know what drank more, me or the car.

Certainly do, have always enjoyed the old brewery promotional items, we had 16 breweries here I believe. Cone tops are worth something, I can remember starting to collect these things in the 70's, was a lot of fun, old farm dumps we'd also find old milk bottles and other things. You would still find a lot of those steel cans right where they were tossed. I just found a six pack of slightly faded budweiser cans at a far corner of our other place while fixing a fence, steel with aluminum tops, right where they drank em, pretty good shape, pull tabs, but had to be late 60's early 70's.

Not old enough to have drank beer from those cans, though there were still grocery store chain brands, Carling Black Label and similar still offered in those type of cans. The no name soda was offered in those cans right up to the mid 80's, Penguin Soda.

Our first place where I live now, had a refrigerated room, was a distributor for a local brewery I found a lot of cool items from that brewery and was darned lucky to find the brewery sign, 2 piece steel hanging sign, gold leaf and painted type, before the last barn was demolished. Lot of items I have found, few from e-bay, lot out there, depends on how crazy one is into this stuff.

Church keys were made by one company for a lot of these breweries, don't leave home without one !

Bic lighter pryed up under the cap, using your thumb as the block for the fulcrum works well, not sure that it's not dangerous, but certainly works, so does a pair of wire cutters, craftsman, thick handled ones, a literal cap digger, pops em off with a nice sound and sends em flying, used the same way as the bic lighter.

My neighbor found a bunch of pre-prohibition bottles from a long defunct local brewery, under the front porch, the ones with the ceramic top with a gasket and wire hardware. I obtained some of the same, in really nice shape, the wire was not rusted, still has the steel color, without rust, must have been shelved inside, kind of a fun hobby to find or collect these things, but too many = a lot of dusting off to do or some other storage arrangement.

Church keys were free with the purchase of beer. Bottle opener on one end and can puncher on the other. You brought back a lot of memories!

I remember motor oil coming in the round cans with metal tops and bottoms. They sold a tool which consisted of a metal spout with a punch on one end. You jabbed the can with the punch end, and it would stick in the can. Then you used the spout to pour the oil.

I always kept a magnetic church key stuck under the hood of my car. I could use the punch end for opening cans of oil, and if I needed a bottle opener, I had one handy.

I remember the beer and soda pop cans, and also the bottles, which required a church key. By the time that I started drinking beer, we had pop top cans, and twist-off bottle caps.

I have an old cone top root beer can, which came from a farm auction. The bottom has been cut out of it. I feel certain that someone cut the bottom out of the can, and used it as a funnel. The cone top would have made it perfect for the job.

You still use the old church key to open the big cans of Dole pineapple juice.

some one beat me to it but remember my dad using door latch for bottles on ford truck.as a boy remember well certain store brand soft drink cans needing church key opener also my uncle making a chain from pull rings to hang off rear view mirror also dad carried extra empty pop bottles behind truck seat to leave for the full ones we took

My Dad used a nail driven in the workbench with the head bent over to catch the bottle cap edge.