While in Philadelphia in late March for my annual Book and the Cook dinner at Monk's Café, I had the pleasure of travelling with fellow drinks writer Lew Bryson to the Sly Fox Brewing Company in nearby Royersford and enjoying a couple of beers with brewer Brian O'Reilly. Sly Fox is a brewery that has made its presence increasing felt on the mid-Atlantic beer scene, largely through such impressive ales as their Jake's ESB, Saison Vos and a 10% alcohol quadruppel called Ichor.
But as much as sampling my way through O'Reilly's extensive line-up of brews was an thoroughly enjoyable beer experience, what really caught my attention, and what I think is destined to make Sly Fox an even bigger name on the east coast, was the brightly coloured cans of malty-fruity Phoenix Pale Ale and floral, German-style Pikeland Pils that the brewery now packages at Royersford.
While canned craft beer is hardly commonplace, neither is it the anomaly it was when Colorado's Oskar Blues burst on the scene with their canned Dale's Pale Ale and Old Chub a few years back. In my own backyard, craft brewers Hockley Valley Brewing & Malting and The Robert Simpson Brewing Company now package in half-litre tins, and it was only a few days ago that I reviewed the latest canned offering from Oskar Blues, a double IPA named Gordon, for All About Beer Magazine. So obviously, as much as I do like the Sly Fox cans and wish that I could buy them locally for those times that bottled beer is too heavy or impractical, I'm not mentioning them here because of their newsworthiness.
No, the reason I bring up the subject of canned craft beer is because I have seen the future of that market, and it is found in Finland.
Visiting in April for the Helsinki Beer Festival, I was surprised to find that most packaging craft breweries in Finland have willingly, even enthusiastically embraced the half-litre can. Although most of the beers available for sampling at the fest were in draught form, a considerable number of them were backed up by canned versions of the same brews. When I asked about the prevalence of canned over bottled beers, I was told that the Finnish supermarkets prefer, or even insist upon the tins for their ease of storage and shipping.
And to that I say, why not? Here at home, particularly in the summer, I am not adverse to the occasional 500 ml can of Pilsner Urquell, which, despite the fact that it is also sold locally in two different bottle sizes, I will buy instead of the green glass bottles ten times out of ten. True, they're not as aesthetically pleasing as the bottles, but at least I know with a can that I'll be getting non-light struck beer, a quality I can in no way guarantee from the bottles, unless I choose to endure the grumpiness of a clerk when I ask them to get a fresh case from the back and open it in front of me.
As I understand it, micro-canning lines like that of Sly Fox are now available and affordable for the small brewery. Which leads me to expect that other craft breweries may be following the Oskar Blues and Sly Fox lead sooner rather than later, and that some day a Pittsburgh or Seattle beer fest might feature as much canned ale and lager as did the Helsinki Fest.
It's a development that I, for one, will embrace wholeheartedly.
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