Canned Beer ≠ Bad Beer

I came across this beer review on Flickr (the guy puts a beer review in the caption of each of his beer photos). The guy writes his reviews well and from the couple I read, he knows his stuff, but he says one thing in this particular review that is one of my pet peeves when it comes to beer.

The guy is obviously a beer geek. I don't use that term as an insult given that I consider myself one as well, but he seems to have fallen for one of the weirder beer geek myths out there. The review is about Dale's Pale Ale, one of my favorite beers. I actually try to keep the stuff in stock in my beer fridge. I probably drink more of this stuff than any other beer that's not homebrew. I don't drink a lot of beers repeatedly. I tend to go for something I haven't had over something I've had before, but there are times (parties and college football) when you don't want to take the time to pay attention to the beer and take notes. Before Dale's my go-to beer was Sweetwater IPA (still one of my favorites) and Victory Prima Pils (the best lager ever made).

Dale's has one thing that makes it obviously different from the IPA and Prima Pils. While those two are found in the traditional brown longneck bottle, Dale's Pale Ale comes in six-packs of cans. The beer is brewed by Oskar Blues, a brewery that pretty much cans everything. Want an imperial stout in a can? Oskar Blues has one. The weird thing is that there seems to be a small group of beer geeks who won't even try a beer in a can. When you ask why, they always come up with the same excuses: "It's gives a metallic taste to the beer" or "Only crappy beer is canned."

I'll start with the second one. This is kind of a silly thing for a beer geek to say. It wasn't that long ago that it was fairly reasonable to say, "All beer is crappy." Back when the first West Coast microbreweries and Boston Brewing (Sam Adams) set up shop in the late '70s and early '80s there wasn't anything better than Budweiser, Miller and Coors except maybe a couple of imports. Actually, until the craft beer movement exploded in the '90s, you could have kept saying that all beer was crap and not been all that far off the mark. To say that only crappy beer is canned now is to show that you don't know that much about the current beer industry. Oskar Blues has recently become a fairly widely distributed brand and it's not the only craft brewery canning their beers.

The guy in the review didn't seem to be that kind of guy. He reviewed the beer very positively, so obviously he knew that the beer wasn't crap because it was in the can. He seemed to be in the first category thinking that the can somehow negatively affected the beer. This is actually an outdated mindset. Back in the old days, cans really did give a metallic flavor to the beer. The cans were unlined and, especially when they used tin in the cans, you would have noticed a metallic flavor transferred into the beer. It's just not that way anymore. The cans are now lined so that metal never touches the beer. The lining also transfers no aromas or flavors to the beer.

Of course you could just say that my palate is not the most refined and I'm missing the off-flavors. That could be true, but I've also organized a few blind taste testings where some of the beers involved were canned and the tasters were highly experienced reviewers. I've taken part in others. The canned beer has never once been accurately identified even though the tasters knew that one of the samples was canned, and it usually scored higher than the bottled beers. The draft beers typically score the highest, but then they're also stored in a giant can more or less.

Actually, the can is a superior package all the way around. There's less packaging involved. The cardboard six-pack holder is replaced by the plastic rings. The glass is replaced by the equally recyclable aluminum can (which is easily crushed to take up less space for those who don't recycle). If you're worried about seagulls or seals getting tangled in the plastic rings, a quick snip to the loops solves that problem. The cans also protect the beer better. Even brown glass allows some light in, which spoils the hop oils and creates the skunk-like aroma you find in clear Corona bottles. Bottles also have a space full of air between the top of the beer and the bottle cap while the cans have very little airspace. The less air in the container, the less chance of oxidation, which ruins the flavor of the beer.

And if you're turning your nose up to canned beer because you're in a third category that I haven't mentioned yet, just get over yourself. I have heard at least one person say that even though they new the new can technology protected the flavor of the beer and that it was a better protector of the beer, that they still wouldn't drink canned beer because it made them look like they're drinking crappy beer. What in the hell is the deal with that? I'm not even talking about drinking straight from the can. You're already a beer geek. For people people who don't get it, you already look like a dumbass. You don't have any image to protect. Crack the can, pour it into a glass and drink the damn beer.