Is it just me or have craft beer companies shifted towards canning beer instead of bottling?
I keep seeing craft breweries, smaller and larger, launching beers in cans.
Is this a fad? Is this separating them from the Huge Brews faking craft or is it cheaper in the long run? Every time I’ve looked into canning, it’s crazy expensive.
Its portable, airtight, lightproof, lighter, easier to recycle, provides more surface area for labeling/branding, quicker to chill, and easier to package into 12s and 24s. Lots of good reasons to can. I assume starting a canning operation might be pricy to start, but likely saves money per unit.
It’s not a fad. It’s better in a lot of ways than glass. This “fad” is here to stay.
Crazy expensive for a home brewer, perhaps, but cheaper than it used to be. Economy of scale makes the upfront investment negligible for commercial breweries, even smaller ones now.
I read about this about a year ago.
We will probably see more of this in the coming years. A lot of craft breweries stayed away from canning because it did alter the taste but new technology has created a very thin liner in the cans that helps keep the beer from getting that “metal taste”.
Interesting.
Glad I asked.
Good beer in cans is really popular here with the Grand Canyon River trips-they are not allowed to bring glass bottles and the cans are easier to store and handle anyway. The local liquor stores often sell thousands of dollars of canned beer at a time to the river companies.
Same here on the Snake River and other “recreational” rivers in my area, no glass allowed. There’s a surprising number of good craft beers available in cans locally, though.
Here is the UK we have a very popular chain of pubs called Wetherspoons. They often get a raw deal because the client base is ‘half student, half old man’ and they don’t have any TVs or music.
They always have a pretty good range of cask ales though and a few decent imports such as Goose Island IPA. The latest addition has got me excited though, they have cans from the Sixpoint Brewery: The Crisp, Sweet Action and Bengali Tiger. They are all really good beers at excellent prices. I’m sure the fact that they are in cans helps with shipment.
A lot of the cans I’m seeing from smaller craft operations are four packs of pints, at prices similar to sixes I suppose they are making a little more profit. They are certainly handy.
The reason the trend towards canning beer is sticking this time is because of improvements in flavor preservation, I think. It used to be that canned beer never tasted as good as bottled beer (in my opinion, anyway, and I’m sure a lot of people will agree with me on this one), but that seems to have chanced in the last couple of years or so. I don’t know exactly why this. I can only guess that there’s been an improvement in the packaging, like some sort of protective lining or something. I’m not sure. What I’d really like to know is why nobody will sell “widgets”, like those found in cans of Guinness and other beers, to homebrewers so we can do draught-style beer in bottles. Hopefully, it will only be a matter of time before those hit the market.
[quote=“deliusism1”]deliusism1"]The reason the trend towards canning beer is sticking this time is because of improvements in flavor preservation, I think. It used to be that canned beer never tasted as good as bottled beer (in my opinion, anyway, and I’m sure a lot of people will agree with me on this one), but that seems to have chanced in the last couple of years or so. I don’t know exactly why this. I can only guess that there’s been an improvement in the packaging, like some sort of protective lining or something. I’m not sure. ]
Or maybe they are canning better beer!! No, I agree canning beer has definitely improved. A canned Gubna or a Cigar city Jai Alai is a fantastic experience now…also more portable. My wife and I just enjoyed a couple cans of Westbrook Gose while out kayaking.
[quote=“TheNerdyGnome”][size=80]I read about this about a year ago.
We will probably see more of this in the coming years. A lot of craft breweries stayed away from canning because it did alter the taste but new technology has created a very thin liner in the cans that helps keep the beer from getting that “metal taste”.[/size][/quote]
Not sure I buy that…the “new” technology (lined cans) has been around for decades (and yes, as it has for decades it helped to deliver a better protected product with more convenience, and easier recyclability). The primary reason that craft brewers didn’t use them was because until very recently, smaller scale canning equipment simply wasn’t available to them, and minimum orders for the cans themselves were cost prohibitive.
When cans were not readily available to small brewers, marketing spun them as an inferior container for ‘good beer’. Funny how now that cans are more available to small brewers, they are finally recognized as acceptable (and even desirable).
It’s pretty evident that small brewers probably always secretly coveted the lowly can. 
[size=75](slight grammatical error corrected in final paragraph; intent remains unchanged))[/size]
I never allow bottles on my boat so I’m glad to be able to get some good beers in cans. I heard SN Torpedo will no longer be available in bottles.
I believe now is a good time to invest in aluminum companies……
bottle crowns provide a far from perfect seal, so the beer will oxidize quicker, so cans also help beer retain hop aroma and keep it fresher longer. When cracking a can of heady topper, Jai Alai, or (name your) IPA, this is evident.
Cans effing rock, but to the point previously made, much bigger upfront capital investment for smaller producers.
I’d much rather drink from a glass bottle than a can, but most the time I pour into a glass now so that’s not an issue.
Don’t you mean aluminium? There’s a Graham Sanders reference in here somewhere, for all you old school Aussie loving fools out there…
We are starting up a small microbrewery in central nebraska and once we are up and running we plan on canning.
I generally buy bottled beer because I can reuse the bottles for homebrew, but having craft brew available in cans comes in handy for camping or fishing trips when bottles are more of a hassle (breakage potential) or, as someone stated, just not allowed. The local brewery, Crow Peak, only cans and if I remember correctly, they did it for long-term cost savings and the higher recyclability of aluminum.
