Support Craft Beer in Cans

Canned beer. That’s like your father’s beer, or maybe even your grandfather’s beer. Fizzy, yellow, ice-cold, tinny-tasting, American beer. You were probably repelled by your first sip as a kid, too; or not, like us.

Thankfully, with time comes innovation. After over 75 years of canning beer, we’re seeing more and more craft brewers canning their brews, and consumers are welcoming these new efforts with open arms—especially newer generations. That said, some old stigmas linger and many are still convinced that canned beer is inferior to bottled beer and taints the beer with a metallic taste. So for all the skeptics, here’s a list of canned beer facts and benefits that should help change your mind.

Facts & Benefits

• Water-based linings on the interior of the can and its lid protect the beer from contact with the aluminum can. That’s right, that “can” taste is all in your head.
• 100-percent protected from UV light; no skunking. And, once packaged, oxygen can’t get into cans either (unlike caps and corks, which can fail). Arguably, this could change how people cellar/age beer. Ultimately, this equals a fresher beer.
• Lightweight, more durable, portable, storable and safer than bottles. Canned beer can often go where bottled can’t.
• Due to their light weight and compactability, recycling trucks can transport more cans, thus saving fuel costs and reducing carbon footprints.
• Recycling aluminum cans generates 95-percent less pollution and requires 96-percent less energy than creating new ones, according to oskarblues.com.
• One recycled can saves the energy equivalent of 6 ounces of gas or the electricity to power a guitar amplifier for two hours, also according to oskarblues.com.
• Cans cool down faster than bottles, which means you’re wasting less drinking time.

Still not convinced? Then we suggest you start exploring the many canned craft beer offerings available today, because clearly the benefits of canning clearly outweigh those of bottling. Canning is something worthy of our collective support. ■