Craft brew in cans?

Went to my local Binny's to get some assorted craft brews for Thanksgiving...
One of our favorites is Avery's Ellie's Brown Ale...approaching the shelf where they normally sit, all I saw was six packs of cans...

A helpful store associate informed me that the cans are all their distributor is now carrying...
He also told me that Avery is not the only one, that more and more of the craft beers are going to cans...

Frankly I didn't like it and I bought Smuttynose's brown ale instead.

I suspect this is a cost based decision? Thoughts?

Canning is one of the best things that has happened to the craft brewing industry in the last few years.

You're about 30 years behind the times in forming your bias against canned micros....

We have a ton of threads discussing this, including this one of mine.

as well as- https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/canned-craft-brew-238910/?highlight=canned and many more.

It's really a great thing, now you don't have to worry about your favorite beer being light struck and skunked, and you can take them to places where glass bottles are not allowed. I mean why can BMC be taken to the beach and our favorite stout or ipa can't because they're in glass and not cans.

These ain't your daddy's bud any more.

What happend was the minimum order for cans was dropped to a level that made it reasonable for microbreweries to start canning. Now the minimum order is IIRC 150,000 cans when before it used to be substanitally higher.

This is the company that has made it available to the smaller level craft brewer....

WELCOME TO CASK.COM

We've been talking about it on here for several years.

You'd really pass by all these phenomenal beers because they're in a can???




Unfounded bias is such a sad thing......

Now they just need to make a canner cheap enough for us homebrewers! Oh, and let you order less cans as well. I would love to package my beer up in pint cans.

WortMonger said:

Now they just need to make a canner cheap enough for us homebrewers! Oh, and let you order less cans as well. I would love to package my beer up in pint cans.

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The only thing about that is that cans are not reusable. If there were some way we could plug the openning, we could use them over. Otherwise they'd have to be really really really dirt cheap for the homebrewer to buy, like the cost of a packet of bottle caps...

Revvy said:

We've been talking about it on here for several years.

You'd really pass by all these phenomenal beers because they're in a can???

Unfounded bias is such a sad thing......

Click to expand...

OK...I guess I have been properly chastised... Apologies to one and all...

In spite of my age, (let's just say over 50), I am relatively new to the craft brew scene...
I always tried to go with bottles, even in my BMC drinking days...

Did ya ever have the tab on a beer can grab a mustache hair...ouch! that will make your eyes water...

Bob_T said:

Did ya ever have the tab on a beer can grab a mustache hair...ouch! that will make your eyes water...

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Maybe you CAN teach an old dog, new tricks, no hai on back to the beer store and give some of those beers a try.

Oh and you shouldn't drink good beer out of cans or bottles, you need to let them breath. Drinking out of a glass shouldn't grab any stache hair.

I can't believe this is even a question anymore.

I melt all my aluminum cans into ingots so I don't waist the space when taking them to the recycler. Actually, I haven't taken my aluminum to a recycler in a while. I'm saving everything to cast into something artistic or usable.

I still buy bottles of BMC to drink from the container, but everything else I would rather have in a can to pour from. Bottles are still the way us homebrewers can package the easiest, but I do wish in my case I could get a cheap canner.

Airborneguy said:

I can't believe this is even a question anymore.

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Believe it!

And it WILL come up again...

We are all entitled to an unreasonable bias or two... this is mine!

They do look cool as hell though! :rockin:

I think its the best thing since peanut butter opens up some many more opportunities ...not to mention it is safer and cheaper for these breweries to do so and its all recyclable...no more waste do to broken bottles!!!!

Im loving the movement to cans. I get avery ipa canned at one place in town and its in bottles most others places last time i looked. The can seems to travel better and stay fresher for longer.
Modus hoperandi....
Daisy cutter.....
Surly.....

21A cans are pretty bad-ace I must say...

Oh, and great beer too.

Golf courses appreciate the beer cans. I appreciate Dales Pale Ale on the golf course.

win/win

Much easier for transport also. In the summers I look out for microbrews in cans to bring camping, etc. I'm liking this trend to cans, as every year I find additional beers that I enjoy showing up in cans.

Concur - cans are a wonderful thing - Surly and 21A!

Maui Brewing Big Swell IPA in a can on a Hawai'ian beach is one of my favorite beer experiences.

Caldera has been pushing the cans for a long time. There's even a following of people that post pics of their beer in far reaching locations, because it's a can and not a bottle.

One of the local breweries here in So Oregon.

Check it out.

Caldera Brewing Ashland Oregon Canning Craft Beer -Photo Gallery: Traveling with Caldera Cans!