In the can.
Today, apparently, is National Beer Can Appreciation Day [see also], celebrating the first cans sold (or at least 1st delivered) by the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company on this date in 1935.
Here’s All the Beer Can Knowledge You Might Ever Need, at least, that’s the headline used on a gif-heavy Foodbeast post from six months ago — but if that only whets your appetite, here are 24* more links on canned beer.
“Koch, a self-proclaimed purist, at first ‘stubbornly resisted’ putting Sam Adams in cans. But after spending more than two years and $1 million developing a couple dozen prototypes, the ‘Sam Can’ was born. Koch says that with a bigger lid and a more defined lip, the redesigned can forces your mouth open more and puts your nose closer to the opening, creating a better flavor experience.”
Craft Brewers Are Reinventing The Beer Can To Improve Taste : Michael Felberbaum, 3 July 2013, AP news wire via Business Insider
“So, why are craft brewers suddenly switching to cans? For starers, beer tastes better in cans. Sunlight, an enemy to beer that can give it a ‘skunky’ flavor, can’t piece [sic] through an aluminum can like it can through a clear or light-colored bottle. Some also believe that cans will keep less oxygen out [sic], which is another factor in ruining the taste of beer. Also, aluminum cools down the brew much faster than a bottle, are lighter in weight, are easier to stack and easier to transport.”
Aluminum Cans: The Next Big Thing For Craft Beer? : Albert Costill, 19 June 2013, amog.com [note: Link included, with the original typo and the blatant factual error, because behind that they kinda-sorta make a good point for me. Also, now I get to publicly make fun of AMOG. Don’t Google the acronym they use as their name as it might offend you. —M.]
“While cans even began to outsell bottles in the late ’60s, the number of breweries producing canned beer dropped significantly over time. Bottles were more marketable and the stigma that the taste of beer would be distorted by metallic cans made it a more difficult sell.”
10 Craft Beers Now In Cans (And Why You Should Drink Them) : Jonathan Katz, 11 April 2013, Food Republic
“‘Bottle color ranges from clear (Corona) to green (Heineken) to brown (pretty much any craft beer). Colored glass makes a huge difference because it protects the liquid from the sun, which can lead to skunkiness.’ As for beer bottles with no color? ‘Clear bottles are honestly a marketing trick. There is no benefit to a clear bottle except to say, hey, look at our pee-colored swill.’”
Why Does Canned Beer Stay Fresher Than Bottled? : 25 April 2013, Food Republic
“‘By and large, the macro brewers tend to innovate more in packaging than they do in product simply because they can’t do too much to a Bud or Miller Lite,’ he said. ‘They can create line extensions like a Lime-a-Rita or a Bud Light Lime, but in terms of Bud Light there’s only so much they can do to draw consumer interest to the product.’”
The Once-Lowly Can Is Boosting the Beer Biz : Tom Rotunno, 6 June 2013, Consumer Nation cnbc.com
“In my youth, canned beer was king, though there was the one guy on the block whose recycling buckets were always overflowing with empty Rolling Rock bottles. But then came the craft beer revolution of the ’90s and slowly but surely cans gave way to bottles and draft beer. For seven years starting in 2002, bottled and draft beers equaled or outpaced the canned stuff in the U.S., but ever since the economy took a nose dive, a growing number of Americans have been cracking open cold cans for their beer-based “
We Are Apparently In The Midst Of A Canned Beer Renaissance : Chris Morran, 20 June 2012, Consumerist
“There is little doubt that canned beer has some very practical advantages: it’s more portable and doesn’t break. It can be taken places glass is prohibited. It is also much lighter and thus cheaper and greener to ship and distribute. I can’t say cans are better, but I’m betting we will soon see a whole lot more of them.”
Craft Beers Say Hello Cans, Goodbye Bottles: An Aluminum Revolution : Larry Olmstead, 1 May 2013, Forbes
“Craft beer in cans could be perceived as unique, distinctive and a specialized niche market. Their challenge will be to overcome the negative image of beer in cans perceived by many beer enthusiasts. Canned beer is commonly associated with mass marketed light American lager beer, budget beer and perceived inferior quality. Small brewers will endeavor to put full flavored and quality beer into cans and depend on the beer drinkers’ experience”
52 Small Craft Brewers Put Beer in a Can : 18 September 2009, Brewer’s Association
“Why Now? A major impetus behind the recent microcanning trend is a change in canning technology, which for decades was geared toward large producers. The Buds and Millers of the world utilize massive industrial canning machinery and purchase blank aluminum cans by the billions every year, according to Hoover. The landscape changed, however, in 2001 when Canadian company Cask Brewing Systems began offering a manual, two-at-a-time canning system designed specifically for small brewers; Cask also worked out a deal with the Ball Corporation to make Cask’s cans available in smaller quantities”
Canned Beer That’s Actually Good : Kurt Wolff, 6 October 2008, Chow.com
“But canned beer’s benefits don’t stop at freshness. Cans are easier on the environment: They are nearly 50 percent lighter to ship than bottles, which greatly reduces their carbon footprint. Jamie Gordon at Cask Brewing Systems, the Canadian company that invented the craft canning system in 1999 and sold its first U.S. model to Oskar Blues several years later, says the number one reason brewers call him is environmental concerns. Creating a more eco-friendly product is what led Marrero to put his craft brews exclusively in cans, a decision that helped earn him a ‘Who’s Keeping Hawaii Green’ award in 2008.”
The Beer Can Revolution : Heather John, 19 November 2009, Bon Appetit
“A week ago I confessed my bias against beer that came out of cans, rather than from a tap or one of the brown glass bottles that have come to be associated with America’s craft-brew renaissance. Reminder, on the counting-our-blessings principle: for us Yanks this truly is the Golden Age of Beer. I have the additional blessing of being able to rely on the reading public to set me straight.”
It Appears That I Was Very, Very Wrong About Canned Beer : James Fallows, 12 February 2012, The Atlantic
“No matter the niche, there is a blogger ready to occupy it,” said a Wise Man on Twitter. Of course there is a blog at CraftCans.com; The most recent article is a 8 Decade Timeline of Canned Beer, posted earlier today.
That’s one 12 pack of links, have another:
- An Amazing batch of beers (and beer reporting) under the “Canned Craft Beer” tag at Beer Street Journal
- The 33 Best Craft Beers in a Can : Bradley Foster, 12 May 2013, Thrillist
- Awesome Canned Craft Beer : Ray Isle, 6 March 2013, Tasting Room foodandwine.com blog
- Top 5 Myths About Craft Beer in Cans – Debunked! : Jaime Schier (QA/QC Manager), 5 March 2013, Harpoon Brewery
- Craft Beer Canning Goes Mobile with the Can Van : Matt Canter, 7 March 2013, americancraftbeer.com
- Microbrewers Canning Craft Beer for Quality : Michelle Klug, undated article in the Wine and Beer Guide, cookinglight.com
- Sly Fox Announces Removable Lid Beer Cans : Andrew Kaczmarek, 12 August 2013, craftbeer.com [note: I ‘invented’ these in 2005 by taking a can opener to a tallboy. Sadly, I didn’t think to patent it. I might still open an etsy store selling “hand crafted aluminium pint glasses”, though. —M.]
- Budweiser’s New Package Design: Can Do, or Can Don’t? : Rain Noe, 19 April 2013, Core77.com
- More Americans Drinking BPA in Canned Beer, Thanks to Economy and Pabst Drinking Hipsters : Lloyd Alter, 20 June 2012, treehugger.com
- What’s the Deal with BPA in Craft Beer Cans? : Anne Vickman, 22 July 2013, craftbeercellar.com
- In Brazil, Brewery Lets Party-Goers Pay For The Subway With Empty Beer Cans : Leah Gonzalez, 15 May 2013, psfk.com
- …and don’t forget the Canned Craft Beer Festival.
…of course I can’t stop at just 24. A few more links came up that are just a shade off topic: Here’s an obligatory link on Beer Can Chicken, “Debunking Beer Can Chicken: A Waste Of Good Beer (And It Is Dangerous)“, and one on Canned Wine.
I also particularly liked this PolicyMic story [22 April 2013, Jeff Guertin], “Craft Beer Astroturfing is a Beer Snob’s Worst Nightmare“. It’s not about canned beer, per se, but it seems like a much more pressing issue (to beer snobs) than a few loose molecules of BPA.
