Beer brouhaha in a can
The Boston Globe (free registration required) checks in on the bottle vs. cans controversy noted here the other day, adding to the story in ways you may not care about. Like drinking 16-ounce cans of Schlitz and Miller in bottles compared to Miller in cans.
Boston Beer founder Jim Koch certainly isn’t backing down. He said he has refused requests from airlines, stadiums, and golf courses to sell his Samuel Adams beer in cans - rejections that he says would have brought the firm millions of dollars. He said that canned beer runs the risk of imparting a metallic taste. Although plastic protects the inside of the can, Koch says the tab and lip of the aluminum can - where people sip their beer - is exposed.
‘’I wouldn’t have named my beer after a revolutionary if I was afraid of generating controversy over my principles,” Koch said. ‘’I recognize others have different standards and may make compromises that I’m not willing to make.”
On that subject, it’s interesting to look at a Q&A that Oskar Blues founder Dale Katchesis did in 2003 shortly after Dale’s Pale Ale debuted in cans.
Can you really say that beer in cans is as good a beer in bottles?
DK: Yes.
But what about the aroma (hops and malt) you that we expect and enjoy from a beer like this?
DK: Well, no, not directly from the can. I tell people, when I drink a LaChouffe, I don’t drink it right from a bottle. I pour it into a glass. People see the can and think they need to drink right from it. You’d never drink a full-flavored beer from a bottle. This is a better, safer package than a bottle. It’s draft beer in a mini-keg, and you don’t drink draft beer right from a full-size keg.
We’ll let Joe Piccirilli, president of Pittsburgh Brewing - which packages beer in glass bottles, aluminum bottles and cans - have the last word. ‘’A bad beer is a bad beer whether it’s in a glass or can. And a good beer is good no matter what way you package it,” he told the Boston Globe.
