The canning revolution in craft beer began with one little unsolicited fax. Seems like a daring assertion? Nicely, Oskar Blues, the primary brewery to place craft beer in a can, has at all times been a daring brewery, forging an enduring legacy by going towards the grain.
Twenty years in the past, Oskar Blues Brewery Founder Dale Katechis obtained a spam fax from a Canadian firm selling a small guide can seamer.
At first, Katechis and the staff laughed on the advert. “It was a joke,” says Aaron Baker, senior advertising and marketing supervisor at Oskar Blues. “However then they began pondering extra about it and the way it will enable them to promote beer exterior the restaurant and get it to individuals…to tackle a motorcycle journey or get out within the woods.”
An avid mountain biker himself who liked the outside, Katechis began to consider that canning beer simply could be a good suggestion in any case.
He in all probability couldn’t have imagined it on the time, however Katechis’ seemingly tiny resolution to purchase a guide can seamer paved the way in which for a packaging revolution.
In 2002, Katechis bucked conference, releasing the unique craft beer in a can—Dale’s Pale Ale.
Twenty years later, as Oskar Blues celebrates its twentieth CANiversary, Katechis’ radical resolution nonetheless reverberates all through the business.
Wait, There Was a Time When Craft Beer Wasn’t Canned?
Sure, we all know it’s arduous to consider, particularly because the Can Producers Institute reported that beverage can manufacturing jumped six p.c in the US to greater than 100 billion cans final 12 months.
However suppose again to the late Nineties and early 2000s, when Katechis first began stepping into the beer enterprise.
On the time, the American craft beer motion was actually simply beginning to achieve momentum.
And the bundle of alternative?
Bottles.
“Again then it was a very totally different time,” says Baker. “No one knew you can even put good beer in a can.”
As an alternative, cans have been synonymous with mass-produced home lagers.
“We began at a time when there was no beer that wasn’t some mass-produced home gentle lager or unhealthy pilsner in a can,” says Baker. “To place a 6.5% actually hoppy pale ale, which is mainly an IPA, in a can was only a completely bonkers concept that blew individuals’s minds.”
However Katechis had at all times accomplished issues otherwise. Even proper from the beginning.
From Fly Fishing Information to First-Charge Brewmaster
Initially planning to maneuver to Wyoming to change into a fly fishing information, Katechis discovered himself sidetracked alongside the way in which, stopping in Colorado.
He by no means left.
“He fell in love with the place,” says Baker.
So in 1997, Katechis opened Oskar Blues Grill & Brew as a restaurant. A few 12 months later, he noticed a chance. After partnering with Left Hand Brewing Co. in Longmont to craft a beer simply to serve at his joint (dare we are saying a really early collab?), Katechis loved a thirty p.c bump in annual gross sales. So he determined to brew his personal beer, asking Oskar Blues Co-Founder Brian Lutz to assist him flip the blues corridor basement right into a brewpub.
A homebrewer in school at Auburn, Katechis and brewmaster-at-the-time Craig Engelhorn churned out the primary keg of Dale’s Pale Ale as a manner to supply handmade suds to their prospects.
Initially named Dale’s Pale Ale as a result of, effectively, the identify rhymed and sounded good, Katechis’ signature creation took off like a shot.
“The identify was a joke to start with…nevertheless it caught round,” says Baker. “It’s sort of ridiculous, however that’s why it’s nice. We have been in a position to poke enjoyable at ourselves somewhat bit and never take ourselves too significantly.”
One thing that might come in useful when Katechis determined to can his eponymous beer for the primary time in 2002.
As a result of at first, they have been the laughing inventory of the beer world.
When in actuality, it will be Katechis who had the final snigger.
These Who Can First Can Hardest
When Katechis first canned Dale’s Pale Ale he began off small. Oskar Blues staff manually stuffed every can, hand-capping sixteen instances per hour in a 5,000-sq-ft barn Katechis renovated subsequent to the unique brew pub.
“At first, it was wild,” says Baker, recalling how Dale would inform him tales about hiring his brother to assist promote the instances by hand to native grocery and liquor shops. “They needed to present folks that the beer was good popping out of a can and that folks would purchase it.”
As a result of once more, on the time, canning had a destructive connotation. Individuals believed that the cans gave the beer a metallic aftertaste.
Individuals simply didn’t perceive why Oskar Blues would ever can a beer. Even brewery pioneers akin to Boston Beer Firm Founder Jim Koch chimed in with their very own arguments towards Katechis’ loopy alternative.
However as we speak, these previous beliefs have confirmed to be myths.
Actually, it’s the exact opposite, cans are literally higher for beer.
Why Cans Can-Can-Can Make Beer Higher
For all intents and functions, beer has two enemies: oxygen and lightweight. Each can probably trigger beer to spoil.
Cans truly assist remove each of these pesky issues.
“You will get a significantly better seal on the can lid than on the crown of a bottle,” says Baker. “And you may’t see beer in a can as a result of it blocks out one hundred pc of the sunshine.”
Whereas glass bottles, even brown bottles, let in some gentle. “In the event you maintain a brown bottle as much as the sunshine you may see the beer in there, which implies gentle is getting in,” says Baker.
Plus, to place it merely: Cans are simpler to take wherever. “Getting out into the woods and getting after it’s fairly arduous to do with a glass bottle and be ok with,” says Baker.
Cans then again? Straightforward to tackle a mountain biking journey, a hike, whereas fly fishing, or actually throughout any out of doors exercise.
And as we speak, cans have much more benefits. Since they’re made from aluminum they’re higher for the atmosphere. “It’s an incredible materials as a result of it may be recycled over and time and again with no loss in anyway,” says Baker.
Moreover, aluminum cans are lighter, which means transport them throughout the nation can scale back a brewery’s carbon footprint.
However again within the early 2000s, none of those benefits resonated with a burgeoning American craft beer business.
Katechis needed to struggle tooth and ‘Dale’s Pale Ale’ to buck the complete established order.
Giving the Finger to Can Foes
As soon as Katechis heeded the decision (or fax, on this case) for cans, he by no means appeared again. Two years after canning Dale’s Pale Ale for the primary time, Katechis invested in a $45,000 automated canning machine constructed by Cask Brewing System.
Oskar Blues went from manually canning sixteen instances an hour to routinely filling 1,200 cans per minute.
Katechis’ funding signaled simply how deeply he believed in cans.
“Dale and Oskar Blues particularly have been uniquely positioned to interrupt by means of the can barrier as a result of the perspective was simply ‘fuck you,’” says Baker. It’s an ethos that pervades many choices on the brewery, from placing the unique craft beer right into a can to every beer that adopted.
What got here subsequent after the loopy thought of placing a 6.5% hoppy pale ale in a can? Nicely, Katechis might have put an easy-drinking, gentle, and fashionable beer in cans.
However…nope! (tThat would come later. Largely just lately, with Oskar’s latest launch, Oskar’s Lager)
Have you ever discovered nothing of this daring, badass brewery but?
Subsequent, Oskar Blues canned Outdated Chub, an 8% ABV malty scotch ale, adopted carefully by Ten FIDY, a ten.5% ABV imperial stout.
“The perspective was ‘don’t inform me we will’t do it, we’re going to do it,’” says Baker.
A becoming resolution, contemplating FIDY stands for “fuck the business do it your self.”
Katechis and Oskar Blues made the choice to blaze a path, sticking to their weapons regardless of the outcries calling them loopy.
“If individuals didn’t catch on they have been like effectively your fucking loss,” says Baker. “It’s nice beer out of a can so that you’re lacking out.”
It was a headstrong perception that Katechis stayed true to regardless of battling a considerable headwind.
“The rebellious facet of it’s the American spirit of simply holding to your rules and going for it it doesn’t matter what,” says Baker. “That’s one thing we’re pleased with and value celebrating with all people.”
As a result of in actuality, Oskar Blues’ steadfast perception finally impacted the complete business.
Celebrating Oskar Blues twentieth CANiversary
Greater than a milestone for Oskar Blues, celebrating the twentieth ‘CANiversary’ (as Oskar Blues has come to name it), marks a win for the complete craft beer business.
“It’s actually about discovering how good cans are for craft beer and what number of breweries it has helped,” says Baker. Whereas it’s unattainable to essentially say what number of breweries Oskar Blues impressed, canning Dale’s Pale Ale has “undoubtedly had one thing to do with the explosion of craft beer and the variety of breweries in a position to get into packaging,” says Baker.
In 2004, Oskar Blues reported promoting 5,000 instances of canned beer every month. Right now, the brewery counts XXXX.
Extremely, that’s now solely a small chunk of the over 100 billion cans rocking cabinets all throughout the nation.
Throughout the final twenty years, almost each brewery in the US has come round to canning. Even these breweries that skipped packaging beer in any respect have been compelled to have a look at choices when the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic closed taprooms for lengthy intervals of time.
Right now, cans are king.
However regardless of Katechis and Oskar Blues’ contributions to this now-royal type of packaging, the brewery stays humble. For Baker it actually all returns to the brewery’s begin in a drafty brew pub basement in Lyons, CO.
“We’re most pleased with ensuring we keep that group facet, as a result of as you develop and get larger, it’s more durable to carry onto these issues,” says Baker. “Twenty years after we first put beer in a can it’s nice to nonetheless say we’ve that very same mentality.”
Whether or not at Oskar Blues’ taproom in Longmont, CO; Austin, TX; or Brevard, NC, every maintains the camaraderie of the unique. Oskar Blues Grill & Brews was a spot the place locals would go to seize lunch, have a beer, and hang around.
And if the final twenty years have proved something for Oskar Blues, it’s {that a} steadfast religion even within the face of adversity, whereas the complete business laughs in your face, can finally flip right into a rumbling revolution.
As we stated, those that can first can hardest.
“I’m unsure there’s one other can on the market that can blow the complete business like [Dale’s Pale Ale],” says Baker. “However I hope in forty years we’re nonetheless consuming Dale’s out of a can and taking it on bike rides.”
We’ll crack open a can of Dale’s Pale Ale and drink to that.
