By Steve Holt
:: Writer specializing in food, technology, real estate, sports, management theory, etc. Edible Boston, Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, TakePart.com, etc. 2011 Best Food Writing. @thebostonwriter ::
The aluminum beer can — which for years lost its “cool” edge among drinkers who thought cans were too blue collar — is back. We started seeing some early adopter craft breweries put out canned beers a few years back (my first was a Brooklyn Summer Ale), and now, it seems, most of the hip breweries have at least one beer available in a can.
You didn’t think Boston-based Samuel Adams was going to sit on the sidelines and let all the little guys have all the aluminum fun, did you? Yes, Sam began offering its signature Boston Lager and Summer Ale in a can last Summer, but it did the beer industry one better: Samuel Adams reinvented the can altogether.
It almost didn’t happen, according to the Boston Globe. Founder Jim Koch has been skeptical of canning his beer for years, afraid it would alter the classic taste. He told his researchers he needed to be won over with a great design that would not affect drinkers’ perception of his beer. According to The Boston Globe:
The quest for a better can took the Bunker Hill team to a plastic coffee lid collector in New York, a museum of beer cans in a Taunton basement, and tailgating parties at Gillette Stadium. The two-year effort cost more than $1 million, including the hiring of a renowned design firm and professional beer consultants, as well as the purchase of expensive canning equipment.
At the end of the design process (which was nearly halted several times), Sam Adams and its design partners landed on what they believed was a winning can design whose deeper rim and better airflow helps keep the taste intact — a direct answer to critics who claim beer from a can has an aftertaste. An hourglass curve and wider lid pours the beer further back in the drinker’s mouth so she doesn’t have to tilt her head back as far. And the drinker is forced to open his mouth wider, allowing more air to enter the nasal passages and improving the taste of the beer.
Still prefer the bottle? Don’t worry, Sam in a bottle isn’t going anywhere. But the company is betting that its canned beers will be a hit with the beach and barbecue crowd for many summers to come.
The coolest part of Sam’s can-do attitude might be the generosity with which it has opened up its new can design to other small brewers who want to upgrade their aluminum offerings.
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