In 1962, Alcoa and the Pittsburgh Brewing Co. debuted the pull-tab (or “snap top”) on cans of Iron City, freeing beer consumers from the drudgery of toting a can opener. A ring was later added to the tab to make it easier to grasp. Most pull tabs were casually discarded, where they could lacerate feet or be swallowed by wildlife. Environmentalists squawked, and the industry replaced them with the non-detachable push-tabs in use today.
Another watershed year was 1991, when Guinness released Pub Draught Stout in the United States in a 14.9-oz can with an internal device called the “smoothifier” or “widget.” This plastic cartridge contained a small amount of beer and nitrogen gas under intense pressure. When the tab was pressed in, the fluid gushed out of the smoothifier, roiling the beer and producing the thick, billowy head you’d expect from a draft pour. For many, the widget can was the first inkling that you could get quality beer from a can.
During the 1990s, a few older regional breweries released better beers in cans, including Yuengling with its Black and Tan and Lord Chesterfield Ale, and the Leinenkugel Brewing Co with its Honey Weiss and Berry Weiss. A few smaller craft breweries experimented with 5-liter German “mini-kegs” or contracted out a canned version of their product to larger breweries. Portland Brewing Co. in Portland, OR, for example, produces cans of its McTarnahan’s Amber Ale and Highlander Pale Ale at the August Schell Brewing Co. in New Ulm, MN.
Besides their blue-collar image, a problem with cans is that the packaging equipment, until recently, was prohibitively expensive for a small operation. A high-speed canner and seamer capable of churning out 500-1,000 cans a minute might cost a quarter of a million dollars and upwards. In addition, can manufacturers sold their product in bulk; a customer might have to commit to buying 4 million units at a time.
“The high-speed systems were intimidating from a financial and production standpoint,” comments Jim Fisher of the Ball Corporation. “Until Cask Brewing Systems came along, there was no way for a microbrewer to make the transition.”
The Calgary-headquartered company began selling its manual canners in the late 1990s. The basic model, minus the bells and whistles, costs under $10,000 and is small enough that you can transport it in the back of a car. The device, according to Cask Brewing sales rep Kersten Kloss, consists of a filler, seamer and six-packer, and requires two people to operate. “The empty can is like a cup,” elaborates Kloss. “You load them two at a time into the machine, then trip a switch to start the filling process.” Once the can is filled, the seamer operator places the lid on top of the foaming beer, pulls another lever and the machine rolls the lid over the rim of the can, crimping and tightening it.
Cask Brewing also scored a breakthrough when it persuaded several large can manufacturers to sell cans by the truckload, in minimum lots of around 150,000 about 450 barrels worth of beer. “We convinced them that the image of the can was being improved by all these high-end beers,” says Kloss.
A disadvantage of the manual canner is that it’s labor intensive. Rob Leonard of New England Brewing Co. in Woodbridge, CT. says he’s happy with his Atlantic City Amber and Elm City Lager in cans. But he grouses, “It’s painful to go through 80 cases in four hours. It’s monotonous monkey work. You start hallucinating after a while.” For this reason, Cask Brewing introduced a higher-speed, automated canner which is now in use at breweries like Oskar Blues and Stone Coast Brewing Co. in Portland, ME.
Today, Cask Brewing Systems is an international firm, with clients in such far-flung areas as Jamaica, South Africa, Nigeria and Finland.
The Can of the Future
Today’s featherweight aluminum cylinders are a far cry from the clunky steel cans that debuted in 1935. Undoubtedly, the beer can will continue to evolve. A few years ago, a Bradenton, Fla. Firm called Tempra Technology titillated the beer world by announcing that it was developing a can with a built-in refrigerator. Twisting the can’s lid causes the rapid evaporation of a water-based gel inside, which drops the temperature of the contents by 30 degrees in three minutes.
Fisher thought it unlikely that this self-cooling can would ever be more than a novelty. Refrigeration is widely available in all developed countries, he notes. And drinkers in underdeveloped countries would probably not be able to afford such a premium-priced package. Instead, Fisher believes that the next big breakthrough in the can world will be an aluminum bottle with a twist-off cap. “Reclosable cans are already very popular in Japan,” he adds.
For craft beer aficionados, the contents may be of more importance than the container. Although there is a greater variety of beer available in cans than ever before, the selection is still paltry compared to bottles. Most micro-canners have opted for balanced, middle-of-the-road styles like golden ale, amber ale and lager. You won’t find an American brewer canning an imperial IPA, a dubbel or a triple, or a porter or stout of any kind.
There’s an obvious reason for this. Cans come pre-printed with the brand name on them. If you’re ordering a truckload of cans at a time, you’d better be sure you can sell all that beer!
European brewers have been more adventurous. Wittekerke, a Belgian white ale, has been spotted in this country in a sky-blue can. Young’ Double Chocolate Stout, a unique British brew made with Cadbury bars, has also been packaged in aluminum. A fellow beer writer, Gregg Wiggins, returned from an Australian vacation with some Gold Label Very Strong Special Beer, a barley wine packaged in a 9.5-oz can by Interbrew (now InBev) of Luton, UK.
“I would say it’s only a matter of time,” says Kloss regarding the canning of more assertive, “beer geeky” styles. He also claims he’s had “extensive conversations” with some of the larger craft breweries about canning beer.
Someday soon we might overhear the following conversation:
“Hello, Ajax Liquors, do you have any good Belgians in a can?”
“Why, of course we do.”
“Then you better let them out before they suffocate!”
