I'm suffering from Can-itis

In Wyoming, Snake River converted to cans, Melvin and Black Tooth were packaged cans only. Imagine my surprise when Roadhouse beers came out in bottles!!

 

I wish they'd stick to 12oz 6 packs than the 4pack/16oz format. Many (particularly the top NEIPA brewers) are doing alot of offerings in that high ABV range and for a lightweight like me a 16oz can of 8-10% ABV gives me more of a buzz than I really want, when really I just want to taste the greatness of the beer without the buzz. My only complaint about cans. Pretty minor in the grand scheme of it all.

 

My brother in law is a big time glass exec and just dislikes cans because he makes no money on them. He sneers when I take cans when we golf, but damned if he doesn't drink them with relish....and mustard and chili! He did recently concede that they are better for everything outdoors.

 

I never have this problem...

 

First thing, broken glass in a river will almost certainly at some point get tumbled by the water into sand (thats what it's made of), cans wash down all the way to the Ocean(Where I live) and take forever to degrade and pollute with aluminum. Sure it would be far better is the unthinking trolls would pack the stuff back out but broken glass poses almost no environmental harm, it's inert being almost all silicon.( the most abundant mineral on Earth)
Second, Bauxite mining (Aluminum) is highly polluting and a heavy user of power to make, true it is way more recyclable than glass and glass uses a lot of power to produce but here is the rub, we've been sold a lot of hooey about recycling glass. It really doesn't make sense to recycle it in most instances, it would be far better to simply crush it near the end user and add to fill dirt, asphalt or just dump it offshore after crushing. Some like to point out cans weigh less so shipping is more efficient, well that kind of assumes that you recycle glass which if you don't then the one way trip for glass is cheaper than cans two way trip.

 

I just wish people would stop throwing their bottle caps, pop tops and pull tabs on the ground. I find tons of them when I’m metal detecting. I do prefer beer in a can over a bottle though.

 

The trip from the recycling center I managed for 11 years to where the glass was used as clean fill was under ten miles, and the most distant recycling center from which the clean fill bank was fed was under twenty miles.

Your post was excellent, and I will add one thing. From my years spent educating the public as part of my job I found that folks (are led to) think that cans they buy are made entirely, or predominantly, of recycled aluminum, when in fact it is only 30% recycled aluminum,

 

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In the spirit of stop giving a fuck, I suddenly had a massive desire for crystal clear West Coast IPAs and grabbed some Alpines and FW's the past few weeks. No cans, no problems. West Coast is what really sucked me in years ago, can't believe I've poo-pooed them for NE cans as much as I have in the past couple years.

 

I can not get into cans ! Bottles please.

 

Yep. I've seen a spot on the Carolina sounds where Bauxite is extracted. It is a very environmentally unfriendly process. My brother in law sells glass (soda ash) and those huge and deep Wyoming mines are also pretty spooky. Containers have forever been a conundrum.

 

You CAN't go wrong if you are spelling the word for an aluminum cylinder used for housing foods & food grade liquids while using all-caps to do so!

For the OP: Welcome to The CANQuest (tm), my AL Amigo! Mine began ~ 14 years ago in response to NickD717 (TickD717) & his LNBA posse/crew. I had wanted to be a part of their clique for a while, but as a high school English teacher, they began after my bedtime. 8=( On a snowy PA evening that eventually became a blizzard, school was CANcelled & I was in! 8=) My enthusiasm was quickly tempered by the realization that they were mainly CAPT Ahabs - whalez hunters, bro! That has never been my scene & when I suggested talking about beers with greater availability, I was laughed out of the forum that night.

I then got a message from NickD717 telling me to come up with a concrete idea, to share it & it would be given CANsideration. I thought long & hard on it & hit upon beer in CANs since everyone has access to them, but Oskar Blue's Dale's P.A. was the only micro on the market. First came the laughter & then my total & CANplete shunning from the group! 8=(

I then made it my sworn goal to drink (& review on this site), EVERY CANned beer in existence! Sure, there were a LOT of crappy AALs & AMLs initially, but I soon became famous for championing the CAN cause, beCANming a Johnny CANpleseed, schlepping CANs as I traveled to get the word out. Russ Phillips, author of the coffee-table book, Craft Cans, and I are generally recognized as Craft CANnings' earliest CANverts.

My next epiphiCANy was that beer in AL CANs is a worldwide phenomenon & CANs beCAN showing up from all over the world! 8=O It was then that I really developed a taste for Pilseners.

An added bonus to The CANQuest (tm) has been my renewed CANmitment to recycling. At first, I was (stupidly) recycling almost everything with the exception of a few eye-catching CANs. It also meant that I CAN no longer walk past discards on the street or in the gutter. CANs come home for recycling (& $), while plastics are thrown in the nearest recycling bin.

In reading our local free weekly paper, I first heard about Jeff Lebo, in neighboring York Co., an avid spent-CAN collector who built a two-story, five-bedroom house for his collection! http://cansmartbeercans.com/take_a_tour.html I CANtacted him for a tour & when he agreed, I decided to take my modest CANlection along to see if there might be any interest. We were sitting in the living room & I dumped the CANtents of my bag on the coffee table. He was flabbergasted & asked how long it had taken me to amass so many. I replied that it was the equivalent of a month, but then he did the math & asked what had become of the others. When I replied that they had been recycled, he nearly wept! He implored me to cease & desist & I have. He now comes over (at least) twice a year to make a pick-up.

One last CANecdote: I used to travel routinely & "help" at brewfests, bring me into CANstant CANtact with Bill Covaleski, one of the co-founders of Victory B.C. in nearby Downingtown. I would routinely put the bug in his ear about the possibility of CANning until he lost it one afternoon. He whirled, put his finger in my face & shouted, for everyone to hear: "Woody, stop it about those f**king CANS! Victory beer will be in CANs when Hell freezes over! Not one more word!" As he stomped off, I called some CANtacts & became the sole supplier of winter clothing to Hades. Today, I am a VERY rich man!

For @JackHorzempa: Sorry for the delay. I had a rough day at school yesterday & came home & went straight to bed. I promise to try & do better in the future. I know that you hold me to a high CANdard.

 

Does it cost less to can than to bottle? I know there are mobile canning lines. Are there mobile bottling lines?

 

Looks like your CANecdote tied in with mine. Excellent.

 

Bill is sitting at home, seething.

 

Wow..you just need to say get off my lawn, and your set!!

 

I w you pal, cans or growlers

 

I too prefer beer in cans. My local favorite, Gibbs Hundred, now cans. It allows me to have really fresh beer locally made and beers that seem to meet my taste preferences. The argument about canning and aluminum pots up here from time to time. Some interesting tidbits: using recycled aluminum takes only 5% of the energy as raw aluminum. While recycling rates here need to be higher that is achievable as Brazil recycles 98% of its aluminum, Japan 82%. Given the price of aluminum if it gets into the system it gets recycled, not into a landfill. The same can't be said for glass even though I use them for home-brew and my glass growlers get plenty of reuse. The best way to improve glass recycling would be standardized bottles and mandatory deposit laws. Then even the ones tossed to the wayside would be picked up and put back into the system.

 

My thoughts exactly. There's plenty of great beer and great breweries all around us.