Craft Beer in a Can!

Playing on the Bud Light commercial that’s been loved and loathed recently as a cheap ploy to get your attention, I had my first Dale’s Pale Ale a couple of days ago. Dale’s is made by Oskar Blues, the first craft brewery to achieve great success with packaging craft beers exclusively in cans.

I like to think of myself as a pretty open minded beer drinker, so I wasn’t expecting the shock I got when I took my first sip. Sure, Guinness, Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, and Red Stripe all come in cans, but this was amazing.

The hiss when opening the can was deceptively similar to every other fizzy yellow beer I’ve ever had, but the taste floored me. I was talking to someone while I opened it, but my first taste took me out of the conversation. What was this tastiness in a can? Could it really be that fantastic beers are packaged this way? It was an eye opener for me, but the trend of canning is catching on.

Charlie Papazian wrote an interesting article last month about the rising trend of canning in craft beer. In it, he says that 52 craft breweries are now canning. I think canning is a great idea. Besides the juvenile puns, canning brings huge convenience to craft beer. It’s more compact than bottles. You can bring it anywhere the law allows alcohol, and if you have one too many and get a case of the drops, you don’t have an uncomfortable “try to find all the glass” moment.

Once more, because I can’t help myself. I can’t wait to get it in the can again.

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