Beer Can Turns 80 Years Young

First can of beer was sold in Richmond, Virginia, on January 24, 1935.

January 26, 2015

NEW YORK – The beer can, a convenience store staple item for decades, has reached a historic milestone, turning 80 years old on January 24.

TIME writes that when the beer can made its debut, it was “stunningly popular.” After Prohibition ended in 1933, brewers were looking for ways to innovate and landed on packaging. Although the American Can Co. had been working on a way to get beer into a can successfully since 1909, the company couldn’t solve how to temper the carbonation and keep the cans from exploding. After 20 years of trial and error, the company figured out that lining the cans with the same lacquer-like material used to line kegs would keep the cans intact.

The first brewer to jump on-board with the new packaging was Gottfried Krueger Brewery. American Can installed the necessary equipment for free at the brewery, and cans of Krueger’s Finest Beer and Krueger’s Cream Ale hit store shelves in Richmond, Va., on Jan. 24, 1935—“and quickly sold out.”

TIME writes that canned beer did so well for one brewing company, the now defunct Pfeiffer, that later that year it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. TIME reported in Sept. 1935: “Pfeiffer’s president is William George Breitmeyer, nephew of the German brewmaster who founded the company. Shy and laconic at his desk but jovial away from it, Brewer Breitmeyer has a simple explanation for his own success: ‘I have only one hobby. I collect friends.’ An aid in this hobby is his stock of old German drinking songs, inherited from his uncle.”

Fox New writes that it’s “hard to imagine” a world without the beer can: “Beer cans may be a staple of college culture and backyard barbecues but they haven’t been around forever. It’s hard to imagine a time when you couldn’t head to the convenience store and pick up a 24-pack for an impromptu party.”

Cheers!

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