National Public Radio‘s Weekend Edition Saturday has a piece on the success of craft beer in cans. This is especially true in Anchorage, Alaska, which recently stopped recycling glass, resulting in a surge of canned beer sales.
Craft Beer In A Can? A Gutsy Move Is Paying Off
[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.”
But Burket didn’t have many converts in Anchorage until early this year, when the city stopped recycling glass. Since then, he’s watched the market for good canned beer explode. In Anchorage, the cans often cost a dollar or two more a six-pack than similar beer in bottles. But Burket says even that doesn’t seem to matter.
We have long been proponents of not shunning cans. Oskar Blues makes some really good stuff (an eighty percent increase in sales is outstanding) and I was just tickled to death when I discovered that Brooklyn Lager comes in cans.
It’s always nice to see (or hear) a positive beer story in the mainstream media. It’s worth a listen.
(via my lovely wife)
Shiner comes in a can also, but only along the rivers. Central Texas has a huge tourism market for ‘floaters.’ they allow beer on the river, but only in rationed amounts and never in glass. I swear the stuff tastes different out of the can. But it is by far the best beer availible at a gas station outside of New Braufels.