Cans are a better package for craft beer than bottles. This runs counter to the traditional craft beer snobbery, but its true and cans are rapidly finding their way onto craft beer shelves. One wonders why, on the 75th anniversary of the introduction of canned beer on January 24, 1935, it has taken so long for the craft beer industry to realize cans can do it.
 
Cans are impervious to light and oxygen, extending the shelf and cellar life of our beers. Twelve-ounce size cans weigh only about a half-ounce compared to a bottle weight of approximately 6-7 ounces. For the average consumer, this means toting a six-pack has 3 ounces of cans rather than 2.5 pounds for bottles. Cans also are more compact, taking up almost half the space on a refrigerator or retailer shelf.

Cans won't break, even if you drop them. Therefore cans are especially suited for summer activities such as hiking, backpacking, camping, and going to the beach. Cans also are often accepted at venues where bottles are prohibited including ball parks, golf courses, and sporting arenas. Once emptied, the cans can be crushed and easily taken home for recycling. According to the Can Manufacturers Institute, aluminum cans are recycled more than any other package, reaching over 54% in 2008.

While cans are quicker to chill in a cooler or stream they don=t hold the temperature as well as bottles unless snuggled in a cozy. This may not be a negative if they are in your fridge because once removed they will more quickly reach the proper drinking temperature. Still, it=s generally suggested that the beers, whether in bottles or cans, be poured into the proper glassware for the greatest enjoyment.

The biggest obstacle to greater can usage in the craft beer market has been the consumer resistance, mostly due to age old misconceptions and poor image. When the craft beer revolution threw open the pearly gates to flavorful beer heaven, all craft beers came in bottles and cans contained insipid, mass-produced beer. Most craft beer drinkers came to think good beer should only be in bottles. Oskar Blues Brewery started to turn this around in 2002 and more and more breweries are jumping on the can-wagon.

Another bugaboo is the belief that the beer has a metallic character from contact with the can. This may have been true eons ago, but the latest epoxy coatings completely isolate the beer. Even after denting, the coating stays intact. New Belgium Brewing, which packages beers in both cans and bottles, conducted a blind tasting comparing the same beers from the two containers. They could not distinguish any difference.

Beer in cans began when Pabst and Schlitz experimented with canning Anear beer@ in 1928. Near beer raised the comment by one anonymous observer that Awhoever coined the term >near beer= was a very poor judge of distance.@ American Can Company (ACC) had been working on a beer can model using a plastic liner. ACC then produced a flat-top steel can which needed a can punch, often called a Achurchkey,@ to open.

The Krueger brewery under ACC auspices, was the first company to can beer, starting in Richmond, VA, and on January 24, 1935 introduced canned Krueger=s Finest Beer and Krueger=s Cream Ale. Within a month 84% of Richmond retailers were selling canned Krueger beer. Soon Krueger was taking large chunks of business from Anheuser-Busch, Schlitz and Pabst.

In July 1935 Pabst began distributing their export beer nationally in cans and Schlitz quickly followed. Within a year 200 million cans of beer were sold, 23 brewers were using cans and over 1.5 billion beer cans were sold in 1936.  The six-pack came into being in 1938, generally attributed to Ballantine beer. They decided that larger packages were too heavy for the average housewife.
The first all-aluminum can was a creation of Aluminum International for Hawaii Brewing Company. Hawaii Brewing is little remembered because the experiment was an unmitigated disaster. Hawaii=s Primo Beer, in 11 ounce cans with paper labels, hit the island shelves in July 1958 but the can=s special lining didn=t adequately protect the beer. The brewery ended up recalling 23,000 cases of spoiled beer but the dastardly damage to its reputation was done. Adolph Coors Brewing produced a 7 ounce aluminum can in October 1959 and showed aluminum cans could prove their metal.
 
In 1962, Dayton, Ohio inventor Ermal AErnie@ Fraze developed a self-opening can out of frustration, according to legend, when he found himself with cone-top beer cans but no churchkey at a picnic and used a car bumper instead. Fraze sold the rights to ALCOA which further developed the design. The first pop-top cans held Pittsburgh Brewing Company=s Iron City Beer in March 1962 and again used Virginia for a beer canning experiment. Iron City sales increased 233% in one year and by 1965 three-quarters of US breweries were using the new design.

Pop-tops, however, had several inherent problems including people and animals swallowing them with dire consequences, sharp edges protruding from beach sands to cut bare feet, and ubiquitous littering. Once again Virginia came to the beer can rescue. Daniel Cudzik, in 1972 working for Reynolds Metals in Richmond, applied for a patent for a non-detachable ring pull can opener called the stay-tab. It was introduced to grateful beer drinkers by Falls City Brewing of Louisville, KY in 1975.

Craft brewing finally caught the canning bug in 2002 when Oskar Blues Brewery of Lyons, CO
decided on a whim that their outrageous beers deserved an outrageous package and put Dale=s Pale Ale in cans. The very idea made them laugh but little did they know that they were starting a canning revolution.
Barrel sales at Oskar Blues have jumped from 650 barrels in 2002 just before the canning started, to a projected 31,000 barrels in 2009. Over 40 U.S. and 23 Canadian craft breweries now are canning beer. Nationally, according to Dan Wandel, IRI Senior Vice President, Beer, Wine and Spirits, craft can beer sales increased 22% in 2008 over 2007 and were up over 132% in the first half of 2009.

Numerous craft beer styles are starting to appear in cans including imperial stouts, india pale ales, scottish ales, dunkles, weisse beers, and several Belgian styles. One of the top five beer retailers in the country recently said that he thought Amost craft beers would be available in cans within ten years.@ Look for your favorite canned craft beer, soon appearing at a store near you.