The long wait is nearly over. This month, we will be firing up our new canning line and putting our flagship beer, Monkeynaut IPA, in cans and shipping them to our distributor! We have set a tentative date of Wednesday, May 9, for our first can run, so we hope to be on store shelves near you within days of that auspicious event!
Many people have been asking us why we chose cans. The short answer is that MANY craft brewers in American are switching to cans. Oskar Blues started the craft can revolution back in 2002, and more and more breweries are following suit, including such big names as New Belgium and Sierra Nevada. According to www.craftcans.com, 179 CRAFT breweries are now canning a total of 561 beers in 73 different styles. And, to find out why, here are a few of the reasons listed by the progenitors of the movement, Oskar Blues, on their website at www.oskarblues.com:
* Cans keep beer incredibly fresh by fully protecting it from light and oxygen
* Cans are highly portable, allowing craft beer lovers to easily enjoy great beer in places where glass bottles are not ideal or allowed: the beach, pool, boats, trails, rivers, slopes, hot tubs, bath tubs, golf courses and so on…
* Unlike cans of old, the modern aluminum can is lined with a water-based coating so beer and metal never touch, and there is no exchange of metallic flavor
* Cans are the most easily and frequently recycled beverage package in the world, free of glass breakage issues, and less fuel-consuming to ship (cans enable Oskar Blues to reduce its fuel costs and carbon footprint for shipped beer by 35%)
* A recycled aluminum can generates 95% less pollution than one made from scratch and requires 96% less energy
* 1 recycled can saves the energy equivalent of 6 ounces of gas, or the electricity to power a guitar amplified for 2 hours
Add to that the fact that they are easier to stack/transport, quicker to chill, and a lot less likely to be broken over your head in a barfight. In other words, the question you should be left asking at this point is “Why WOULDN’T you can?”
Because, as a craft beer lover, whether it’s in bottle or can, you should be pouring it into a glass! Preferably the proper glassware for the style, but a shaker pint at the very least. Anything less is just downright uncivilized.
At any rate, friends, look for the brightly packaged Monkeynaut IPA on store shelves in the next few weeks. And if your favorite watering hole, package store, grocer or dining establishment doesn’t have it, ask them to order it. It’s not going to drink itself.
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