Neiburg: Cans, both beer and wine, the latest way to streamline

Jeff Neiburg
The Daily Times
A close up view of 3rd Wave's Beach Juice Berliner Weisse.

Life is about streamlining. It’s always been that way. Humans have been innovating and getting better at daily aspects of life as long as history — real, biblical, ancient, whatever — has been documented.

New inventions and trends both give us a new perspective on things but also move us forward, in most cases. 

This is mostly true in the business world, where companies look for ways to make production easier and more affordable while keeping up with the current trends.

For companies in the business of producing beer and wine, putting liquid in a can checks all the boxes. And canned beverages, both alcoholic and not, are taking the world by storm, making having fun a bit more easier and affordable than before.

Who could hate that?

Breweries, mostly of the craft beer variety, both local and national are adding canning lines, changing the way they produce beer and also making pretty cool looking cans that fill up Instagram and Twitter timelines, Facebook posts and more.

READ MORE: A 1st for 3rd Wave Brewing: Getting into the canning business

An NPR report in 2014 noted a jump in canning from a few dozen breweries to more than 500 in a five-year span.

Dogfish Head recently released its Flesh & Blood IPA in cans.

It used to be that craft beer was served out of a tap or in bottles. Craft beer companies dedicated a lot of resources to bottling, which made their products have a mark of quality, a distinction to compare to the wide availability of domestic cans.

But canning is cheaper, and canned beers are easier for consumers to get around, making it sort of a win-win for producer and consumer. Cans are also easier to stock in a refrigerator, which is obviously an advantage.

Part of the issue in the growth of cans has been consumer perception. Beer drinkers have long preferred the bottle to the can due to a perception that bottled beer was fresher.

I was among that group. Too many Keystone Lights in early adulthood turned me away from the can. I love me some dark beer in a cold bottle. But I'm learning to appreciate the can a little more.

READ MORE: Neiburg: Coconut IPAs? Why not? The latest summer craze

This summer, I've seen cans of Dogfish Head's SeaQuench Ale, the "session sour," all over the place. For IPA fans, the brewery's Flesh and Blood is also a popular can choice.

Crowlers were first introduced by Oskar Blues Brewing in Colorado.

The popular Delaware brewery started canning in November last year, a little behind the trend for a typically forward-thinking company.

“Early on in the craft brewing renaissance I was underwhelmed with the canning technology for craft beer,” Dogfish founder and president Sam Calagione said then. “But times have changed."

Indeed they have. Because you can also find wine and other liquor in cans and other simpler packaging these days. Rubber Soul Brewing Co. is renovating its taproom in Salisbury to make room for a canning line. Burley Oak in Berlin has been canning for some time, and 3rd Wave Brewing in Delmar has cans lining Delmarva shelves. 

And as canning has taken over the beer world, the wine industry has seen a jump in single serving offerings, making it easier to transport instead of carrying a heavy glass bottle with you.

The Stack Wine concept in shatterproof glass is easy to carry and even easier to store. Copa Di Vino has been around for a few years now and is the leading producer of wine by the glass in the United States. 

John Panasiewicz, Brewmaster for 3rd Wave Brewing, explains the mechanics of their Wild Goose canning machine on Wednesday, May 17, 2017. The machine is capable of producing 40 cans per minute and runs on compressed air, electricity and CO2.

Away from glass, Bandit Wines offers 500 milliliter and liter sizes of red and white wine in an eco-friendly carton.

But back to cans, Babe Rosé, produced by the hip Swish Beverages, and The Drop are making canned wine an easily-accessible and real thing.

So grab yourself a can, enjoy some innovation and save a few dollars in the process. And the best part, which I'm sure you've been thinking of this whole time, is that all of these new and cool products make drinking on the beach both a little bit easier and a little more discreet. 

Enjoy.