Pittsburgh Brewing Co.’s vast new brewery in East Deer is running at full speed, but what’s news is a throwback to the company’s 1960s and ’70s glory days.

Rolling off the line Thursday were thousands and thousands of black-and-gold cans of Iron City Beer Premium Lager bearing a sketched likeness of a smiling Bill Cowher. The former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach and current broadcaster is described simply as “Hall-of-Famer” and “Champion.”

It’s the first commemorative can to come off the fancy Slovenian combination canning and bottling line at the brewery — in the former PPG Creighton glass plant — that started brewing in May. No more Iron City and other Pittsburgh Brewing products are being made and packaged at City Brewing in Latrobe, where the brand moved production about 15 years ago from the city’s Lawrenceville neighborhood.

It was from that original brewery complex that the Iron City brand became famous with drinkers and can collectors across the region and beyond for its commemorative cans themed to Pittsburgh football, baseball and hockey.

The 12-ounce aluminum Cowher cans, sliding along at a rate of 400 cans a minute, are going into 14,000 30-packs that are now shipping to distributors, where they should sell better than hotcakes, predicted Pittsburgh Brewing President Todd Zwicker as he led a tour Thursday.

He got the idea after hearing Mr. Cowher’s story about how he left in the coach’s office refrigerator for incoming Coach Mike Tomlin a single can of Iron City beer. That tale is told on the can, in text that lovingly describes Mr. Cowher’s chin “that sticks out like Mt. Washington’s observation deck” and “Jaw’s inevitable” Pro Football Hall of Fame induction.