Beer Friday: Porkslap Pale Ale; Other Good Canned Beers
6 Comments Published by Joel October 20th, 2006 in Beer. Share This
Last night my downstairs neighbor returned from (expensive, overated) Bierkraft with a backpack full of Porkslap Pale Ale, a totally drinkable beer in a can. Now I only had a few sips of one last night (I’m saving my can for a special day), but it brought to mind something that I think might be a growing trend: Small breweries putting their product in cans.
I’ve long been a fan of Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale and Old Chub Scotch Ale, both distributed in cans. (And available, Park Slopers, at Brooklyn’s best kept beer secret, Eagle Provisions.)
Oskar Blues explains why they chose cans instead of bottles:
The modern-day aluminum can and its lid are lined with a water-based coating, so the beer and the can never touch. Cans, we discovered, are actually good for beer. Cans keep beer especially fresh by fully protecting it from light and oxygen. Our cans also hold extremely low amounts of dissolved oxygen, so our beer stays especially fresh for longer. Cans are also easier to recycle and less fuel-consuming to ship.
My neighbor definitely would have had more trouble biking home with a backpack full of bottles, that’s for sure.
So is there a trend here? Are there any other craft brewers distributing in cans besides Butternuts and Oskar Blues?
Image courtesy of A Good Beer Blog.
I always get a lot of flak for this, but I actually prefer my beer in a can. Not for any “taste” reasons though, but for practical reasons. They’re easier to deal with. I can crush them and they don’t take up as much space in the garbage. Plus when I take out the garbage I don’t look like the near-alcoholic that I am with all those bottles clanking around.
Oskar Blues is a great brewery & pub. Although you might be surprised at how small it all is if you havn’t been there in person. And if you like Dale’s, you should keep an eye out for Gordon’s, oh my, that’s a beer. Premium too, at $10 a four pack.
SKA brewing (Durango, CO?) also does the canned beer thing.
I heard an interview with one of the guys at Boulevard on the radio a while back, and he said that the only reason they don’t can their beer is that there’s a perception that good beer should come in bottles.
I know that when I lived in Texas you could get Shiner Bock in cans at a few select locations (usually near no-glass-allowed outdoor activity type places).
SlyFox sells their Pikeland Pils and Phoenix Pale Ale in cans. Both are excellent but I am not sure about their availability outside of the Philadelphia area.
If you can get Bud Light or Busch Light in cans, why not other beers?
There’s a Maine brewery, Sunday River Brewing Company, that cans one of its brews. It’s called “Sunsplash,” it tastes like shit (one friend referred to it as the sad Fresca of beers), and the entire company is staffed by dickbags. So, good beer canned in Maine? No. Craft beer canned in Maine? Technically, yes.