Can you dig it?
Tech tweaks add to retro cool
Sly Fox Brewing is one of several craft brewers using new cans tweaked to enhance the drinking experience.
RICHMOND, Va. — Nearly 80 years ago, Richmond revolutionized the beer world. In this Southern city in 1935, canned beer — complete with how-to instructions — was first sold.
Krueger’s Cream Ale and its punch-top can became an instant hit, propelling the humble beer can to iconic status. That is, until Americans returned to bottles and the beloved craft brews they contained, a cultural turn that left canned beer looking decidedly low-brow.
But more recently craft brewers rediscovered cans, realizing they weren’t just retro-cool, but with a few tweaks might also be able to kick bottles in the can.
Welcome to the beer can revolution, 2013-style.
Today, Budweiser sells a bow tie-shaped can that mirrors its iconic logo, Miller Lite sports a punch-top can, drinkers know their Coors Light is cold when the mountains on the can turn blue, Sam Adams Boston Lager comes in cans designed to improve the taste, and now Sly Fox Brewing Co. sells beer in “topless” cans designed to turn into cups when opened.
“It’s not your father’s beer can anymore,” says Jim Koch, founder and owner of the Boston Beer Co., maker of Sam Adams.
Craft brewers and craft beer drinkers are coming around to the idea of cans. More affordable supplies and canning equipment are helping the boom. In 2002, just one craft brewery was using cans. Now, around 300 different breweries offer close to 1,000 beers in cans, says CraftCans.com, which tracks the canned beer revolution.
“Craft beer in cans is becoming more mainstream each and every day,” says Brian Thiel, regional sales manager with packaging f irm Crown Holdings. “The stigma that has existed continues to get lifted.”
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.
Admittedly, it’s “not going to make the angels sing when you drink it,” says Koch, who is allowing other craft breweries to use the redesigned can. “But my experience with Sam Adams since I started it in my kitchen is that slight but noticeable improvements constantly and repeated over 30 years makes a great beer.”
Meanwhile, Sly Fox Brewing Co. decided to go all the way and blew the lid off with its cans — literally.
In April, the Pennsylvania brewery began selling its Helles Golden Lager in cans with a peel-off top (think soup can). While litter laws prevent it from being sold in all states it distributes in, the can is getting noticed. The brewery also sells its flagship Pikeland Pils in the same cans exclusively at Citizens Bank Park, home of the Philadelphia Phillies.
“There have been a lot of different mini-innovations ... but never that important to craft beer,” said Sly Fox brewmaster Brian O’Reilly. “(The new can) is different and interesting to people, but there’s a real benefit because you can smell the beer ... it really allows you to appreciate the full character of the beer.” Attorneys general in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas are part of an investigation by 18 states into US Airways’ proposed $11 billion merger with AMR Corp.’s American Airlines for its effect on consumers and competition.