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Okla-homey
1/24/2008, 07:28 AM
no, not a description of a Green Day concert

January 24, 1935: First canned beer goes on sale

http://aycu07.webshots.com/image/40126/2002044377409747197_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002044377409747197)

73 years ago today, canned beer makes its debut in 1935. In partnership with the American Can Company, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company delivered 2,000 cans of Krueger's Finest Beer and Krueger's Cream Ale to faithful Krueger drinkers in Richmond, Virginia. Ninety-one percent of the drinkers approved of the canned beer, driving Krueger to give the green light to further production.

http://aycu06.webshots.com/image/40685/2002068292580046826_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002068292580046826)

By the late 19th century, cans were instrumental in the mass distribution of foodstuffs, but it wasn't until 1909 that the American Can Company made its first attempt to can beer. This was unsuccessful, and the American Can Company would have to wait for the end of Prohibition in the United States before it tried again. Finally in 1933, after two years of research, American Can developed a can that was pressurized and had a special coating to prevent the fizzy beer from chemically reacting with the tin.

http://aycu12.webshots.com/image/40931/2002046875199478044_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002046875199478044)

The concept of canned beer proved to be a hard sell, but Krueger's overcame its initial reservations and became the first brewer to sell canned beer in the United States. The response was overwhelming. Within three months, over 80 percent of distributors were handling Krueger's canned beer, and Krueger's was eating into the market share of the "big three" national brewers--Anheuser-Busch, Pabst and Schlitz. Competitors soon followed suit, and by the end of 1935, over 200 million cans had been produced and sold.

The purchase of cans, unlike bottles, did not require the consumer to pay a deposit. Cans were also easier to stack, more durable and took less time to chill. As a result, their popularity continued to grow throughout the 1930s, and then exploded during World War II, when U.S. brewers shipped millions of cans of beer to soldiers overseas.

http://aycu02.webshots.com/image/40201/2004296396874513908_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004296396874513908)
Canned beer shipped to troops overseas in WWII was packaged in special "camoflaged" cans.

After the war, national brewing companies began to take advantage of the mass distribution that cans made possible, and were able to consolidate their power over the once-dominant local breweries, which could not control costs and operations as efficiently as their national counterparts.

These early beer cans did not have the familiar "tab" opening system present on modern cans of beer and soda. Instead, some had screw tops, but most required the consumer to employ the use of an opener tool that pierced the top of the can.

http://aycu07.webshots.com/image/40926/2002044516315051093_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002044516315051093)
Churchkeys. Sometimes brewers distributed them. There may be an old Coors churchkey in one of your junk drawers.

Satirically, these openers were often called called "church keys" by users. For several years, cans showed a picture of an opener on the side panel and instructions on how to use it. Can collectors call these cans “instructionals” or "OI cans".

http://aycu27.webshots.com/image/42986/2002076447044215276_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002076447044215276)
Instructional can. Yes, it was necessary because some people tried to use an ordinary can opener when opening cans of beer

The "pop top" system of opening that did not require use of a tool was first intoduced in the 1960s. Those early tabs on both beer and soda cans separated completely from the can and were usually dropped where the beer was opened.

http://aycu24.webshots.com/image/41543/2002044445707789502_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002044445707789502)

http://aycu39.webshots.com/image/41358/2002046740523188598_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002046740523188598)
Various pop top systems

http://aycu19.webshots.com/image/41938/2002099503342478905_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002099503342478905)
Millions of old pop tops are still out there.

This created a litter problem, as well as a potential hazard because the dropped tab was basically a curled sliver of metal that could cut bare feet. Think of Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville lyric:


I blew out my flip flop,
Stepped on a pop top,
Cut my heel, had to cruise on back home.
But there's booze in the blender,
And soon it will render
That frozen concoction that helps me hang on.

This hazard prompted many canned beer and pop drinkers to begin to open the product, then drop the separated tab inside the can before drinking. This however, was deemed "unsanitary" by some. Eventually, the tabs were redesigned to the now familiar system that remains attached to the can.

http://aycu01.webshots.com/image/40640/2002032580916176837_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002032580916176837)

Today, canned beer accounts for approximately half of the $20 billion U.S. beer industry. Not all of this comes from the big national brewers: Recently, there has been renewed interest in canning from microbrewers and high-end beer-sellers, who are realizing that cans guarantee purity and taste by preventing light damage and oxidation.

There are purists who insist cans impart a metal-ly taste to beer. They prefer glass bottles. I say, just pour the canned beer into a glass there Poindexter. Anyway, even the SO's most distinguished beer consumer now drinks beer out of cans.

http://aycu27.webshots.com/image/41866/2002036615614022983_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002036615614022983)
From Olevet's baby book. After he discovered canned beer in kindergarten, he never went back to bottles.

http://aycu33.webshots.com/image/38752/2003281505657063419_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003281505657063419)

Dio
1/24/2008, 07:47 AM
Green Day ain't metal.


Otherwise, good job as usual.

Okla-homey
1/24/2008, 07:50 AM
Green Day ain't metal.


Otherwise, good job as usual.


Opinions vary. Google "metal bands" and most metal sites list them right there with Slayer and Metallica.

Scott D
1/24/2008, 10:36 AM
I wish I could go back to yesterday in 1935 and smite these foul individuals that tainted the beer universe for eternity. They deserve nothing less than my best smiting.

1stTimeCaller
1/24/2008, 10:36 AM
cool info, thanks again Homey!

OUDoc
1/24/2008, 11:04 AM
Reminded me of the Coors push tab cans (not that I was old enough to drink those then). They were made to slice your fingers.

http://www.rustycans.com/Graphics/definitions/poptops.jpg

King Crimson
1/24/2008, 11:36 AM
i never realized Shaefer had such old school cred.

Miko
1/24/2008, 11:38 AM
very interesting! Nice jorb.

NormanPride
1/24/2008, 11:56 AM
I bet they were drunk when they thought that up.

Pricetag
1/24/2008, 12:41 PM
Back in 1996 Coors packaged their original beer in six collector cans with various labels from their history, and they didn't have tabs. The cases came with a church key.

My buddies and I had just turned 21 in the previous couple of years, and of course, this seemed like great fun to us, so we drank tons of it when they had it out. It really kills the "glug" when you pop the hole in the other side that you aren't drinking from to let the air in. We also figured out that if you squeezed the can just a bit as you first pierced it, you could create a really fun beer geyser.

royalfan5
1/24/2008, 12:54 PM
It should be noted that Coors essentially invented the modern alumni can. Also in what world is Green Day metal? None of the top metal pages on google even mention Green Day. Cannibal Corpse on the other hand is metal as well as Hatebreed.

soonerscuba
1/24/2008, 01:04 PM
Canned beer is the Hitler of beverages.

frankensooner
1/24/2008, 01:53 PM
My pops used to trade his Beer allotment in WWII for chocolate. Just thought I would throw that in. ;)

TUSooner
1/24/2008, 04:30 PM
A truly outstanding edition of GM.

It's also the birthday of the Eskimo Pie (1922) but I don't think they go with beer. I'd have to aks olevet

Scott D
1/24/2008, 04:35 PM
Canned beer is the Hitler of beverages.

I raise my bottle to you fellow beer snob ;)

glass bottle that is.


The only bigger waste of beer than a metal/aluminum can was that plastic bottle idea. If you want a carbonated beverage in a plastic bottle, buy a coke.

Harry Beanbag
1/24/2008, 04:36 PM
Canned beer is great for camping. Bottles are great for anywhere else.

Miko
1/24/2008, 04:38 PM
although I doubt he drank much beer or ate many eskimo pies, also today in history:


January 24, 1972

Japanese soldier found hiding on Guam
After 28 years of hiding in the jungles of Guam, local farmers discover Shoichi Yokoi, a Japanese sergeant who was unaware that World War II had ended.

Guam, a 200-square-mile island in the western Pacific, became a U.S. possession in 1898 after the Spanish-American War. In 1941, the Japanese attacked and captured it, and in 1944, after three years of Japanese occupation, U.S. forces retook Guam. It was at this time that Yokoi, left behind by the retreating Japanese forces, went into hiding rather than surrender to the Americans. In the jungles of Guam, he carved survival tools and for the next three decades waited for the return of the Japanese and his next orders. After he was discovered in 1972, he was finally discharged and sent home to Japan, where he was hailed as a national hero. He subsequently married and returned to Guam for his honeymoon. His handcrafted survival tools and threadbare uniform are on display in the Guam Museum in Agana.

1stTimeCaller
1/24/2008, 04:39 PM
I'm not a big fan of bottles at the lake either.

Harry Beanbag
1/24/2008, 04:39 PM
I raise my bottle to you fellow beer snob ;)

glass bottle that is.


The only bigger waste of beer than a metal/aluminum can was that plastic bottle idea. If you want a carbonated beverage in a plastic bottle, buy a coke.


I'm a beer snob as well, but I don't think the can is the problem with canned beer, it's the beer that comes in them. I can't really think of anything I would call "good" beer that even comes in cans. I don't mind going full hillbilly and drinking Pabst or Miller High Life up in the mountains around a campfire, in fact I like it a lot. But the good stuff comes in bottles.

And yes, plastic beer bottles are the devil.

JohnnyMack
1/24/2008, 05:04 PM
There is a small, growing canned beer movement among microbreweries.

http://www.oskarblues.com/brew/

Both Oskar Blues and Surly come to mind.

silverwheels
1/24/2008, 05:17 PM
Yeah, Green Day isn't even close to metal. Cool story anyway.

Pricetag
1/24/2008, 05:17 PM
I'm not a big fan of bottles at the lake either.
Or any type of party where many beers are being consumed. There are just too many things that can go wrong with them.

royalfan5
1/24/2008, 05:19 PM
The College I went to undergrad in only allowed canned beer on campus because of dip****s playing beer bottle baseball. 4 years of exclusively drinking canned beer was a hard habit to break once I graduated. I still buy cans a lot of the time of sheer habit.

Rogue
1/24/2008, 07:53 PM
http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p99/cjrogue/personal20041206121012618pabst.jpg

Okla-homey
1/24/2008, 09:56 PM
dammit. I give a shout out to my bro Olevet in a "Good Morning" and he don't even respond. Prolly drunk. sheesh.