Complex sentence: Beginning in the 1930s, after an established history of success with storing food, metal cans were used to store beverages--first with beer and then not long after that sodas with their higher acidity and somewhat higher pressures.
Split into simpler sentences: Beginning in the 1930s, after an established history of success with storing food, metal cans were used to store beverages. Not long after that sodas with their higher acidity and somewhat higher pressures.