The good folks at National Public Radio ran a piece this weekend during Weekend Edition Saturday which discussed the benefits of Good Beer in Cans and the recent explosion in popularity of canned craft beer. As any long-time reader of Blog About Beer knows, I’m a huge advocate of beer in cans, so I was especially pleased to hear the story, which you can listen to in the embedded media player below. But here are a few key snippets of the story:
[John] Burket is an early believer in the potential of good canned beer. He’s a beer lover and a local beverage distributor in Anchorage. Burket thought cans would be easier than bottles to take camping, fishing or hiking. They’re lighter to ship. And he says the beer actually tastes better, too. Cans protect the ingredients from sunlight and oxygen, which degrade the flavor over time.
“The product is every bit as good in a can, possibly even better,” he says. “Everybody who does try it is shocked — and loves it.”
And, when discussing Oskar Blues Brewing (arguably the country’s most recognized canned craft beer),
“We knew it would be an obstacle,” Oskar Blues’ co-founder Marty Jones says. “The first stores we took our beer to said, ‘We think that’s funny and we appreciate your guts, but no craft beer lover will spend craft beer prices to buy beer in a can.’ ”
Oskar Blues now sells its cans in 25 states. And Jones reports sales are up more than 80 percent for the first half of this year. “We’re growing like mad. We opened a new brewery last April to try to keep up with demand and we’ve already added some tanks to that brewery to try to keep up.”
According to the national Brewers Association, 45 craft breweries across the country now can at least some beer. Back in Anchorage, Burket predicts good canned beer will take off first in outdoor-lifestyle states like California, Oregon, Montana and Alaska.
As always, it’s great to see good beer covered in national media (especially somewhere as culturally-savvy as NPR) and stories like this just serve as further evidence of the emergence of cans as a mainstay on the country’s Better Beer market.
Here’s the story, straight from the horse’s mouth, for your listening pleasure:
Comments
I have to admit I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to canned beer, probably because I’ve never had a good one. In my younger days, canned beers mostly tasted like can. I’ve carried this knowledge for years and have avoided canned beers altogether.
I’d love to try a really great canned beer, as bottles aren’t allowed at my community lake and I always wind up pouring Storm King or Arrogant Bastard into Nalgene bottles in the parking lot. Cans would be convenient and probably better for the environment as well. Perhaps I need to open my mind a bit here. I’m sure lots has changed since the last time I swigged a warm PBR in the woods.
Did you know that Buckbean Brewing Company in Reno, NV is hosting the first ever International Canned Beer Festival?
Just stumbled across this blog and will have to come back often. I too heard the NPR piece and recently did a short
write up on it.
http://www.incessantrambling.com/craft-beer-in-a-can/
Hoppy Beer Drinking!