In the long history of beer, it’s a challenge to find one specific, flashpoint moment that jumpstarts a seismic shift in the beverage industry. But here’s one: Thursday, Jan. 24, 1935, in Richmond, Virginia – that’s right, River City, a little more than a year after Prohibition had mercifully come to an end.
That’s when and where the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company delivered to beer drinkers 2,000 cans of Krueger’s Finest Beer and Krueger’s Cream Ale, becoming the first brewer to sell canned beer in the United States.
To say the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company started a trend is an understatement. Within three months of the introduction, more than 80 percent of U.S. beer distributors were handling Krueger’s canned beer. Krueger’s began taking away market share from larger national brewers including Anheuser-Busch, Pabst, and Schlitz, who quickly started canning their beer in response. By the end of 1935, more than 200 million cans of beer had been produced and sold. All those early 12-ounce cans were tin – a material that’s durable, heavy, and not all that recyclable (which, admittedly, didn’t get the attention it deserved in the 1930s).
A SMALL CAN SPURS A BIG CHANGE
Bill Coors changed the game again on Jan. 22, 1959, this time in Golden, Colorado. Two years earlier, lightweight aluminum had been introduced into metal can production, and a team at Coors had devised a two-piece, 7-ounce aluminum can that they filled with Coors Banquet. Consumers loved it. Canned beer has been a hit ever since. These days, about two-thirds of all beer sold in the U.S. is sold in cans.
The standard 12-ounce can, essentially the same size the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company used in 1935, outpaces other-sized cans in today’s marketplace. Even Coors – who changed the industry with their 7-ouncer – now offers their beer in 12-ounce cans. But there is no one-size-fits-all option for beer brewers. From tallboys to slims, sleeks to crowlers, modern-day beverage producers have numerous options when it comes to choosing a can size.
Wild Goose Filling’s industry-leading canning systems can work (pun intended) with all manner of can sizes, but for various reasons, brewers may want to consider other can sizes when bringing their beverages to market. Here’s a quick look at some of the options in can sizes on the market today. Just look at what the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company unleashed.
CANS ARE STYLING
Before we look at the different can sizes, let’s take a quick look at can styles. We can break them down into three basic categories: Standard, slim, and sleek with the understanding there can be different-sized cans within those styles.
Take the standard-style can, for instance. It is that familiar and ubiquitous shape found in beer, sodas, seltzers, and juices, but it can come in different sizes (the always popular 12-ounce and 16-ounce for example).
Smaller in diameter than standard cans, sleek – or lean – cans first appeared on the beverage scene in Europe in 2012 and grew to prominence with the rise of canned hard seltzers.
Slim cans are narrower than sleek cans and are popular styles for canned coffees, energy drinks, and craft cocktails.
CAN SIZES
Now, on to sizing. There’s a wide range of reasons and rationales for using different-sized cans including industry standards and preferences, but generally, there are six distinct sizes of cans used in the craft beverage industry – ranging from 8.4 to 32 ounces. Here’s a closer look at each, from smallest to largest.
100mL Cans: Great size and easy filling, the 100ml cans continue to gain fans. These small cans are the hottest packaging trend in the burgeoning Ready To Drink cocktail category. The compact 3.4-fluid-ounce form factor and premium feel of a steel-walled, three-piece can are perfect for premixed cocktails.
Nip: At 8.4 ounces, it holds a little more than what Coors started serving in 1959. It’s a favorite size for energy drinks (yes, you know the brand we’re talking about) and coffee shots. Besides being easy to transport and store, one of the top advantages for nip-sized cans is summed up nicely by the late, iconic British beer journalist Michael Jackson who wrote that barleywines traditionally came in nip packaging “as though to protect the drinker from excess.”
Original: This is the 12-ounce can most people think of when they think of canned beverages. It’s the industry standard, and when Wild Goose spec sheets describe how many cans per minute our canning systems can fill, we’re talking specifically about these original-sized cans.
Tallboy: A pint-sized can that’s popular with the biggest beer brewers (as six-packs) and a wide swath of craft beer producers who sell them in four-packs. One of the big advantages of tallboy four-packs is they require less beer and less container and packaging material than a six-pack of originals.
Stovepipe: Checking in at 19.2 ounces, stovepipes are the fastest-growing can size in the industry. Increasingly popular with hard cider producers, this larger, but unusual, size is popular at entertainment venues like stadiums and concert venues.
Crowler: They can hold 32 liquid ounces and, unlike their glass growler cousins, are fully resistant to oxygen intake and UV light penetration. Like stovepipes, crowlers are gaining in popularity, but their shelf-life is shorter than other cans. Typically it’s recommended that you consume crowlers within a week of having it filled at a craft brewery.
