Cans get weird

As the wine world has started flirting with cans, beer responds with examples of one-upmanship: “Anything you can can we can can weirder.”

In my last post I wrote about Carlsberg’s sustainable new way of packaging multipacks. That was very sensible. Now I want to share with you a couple of bizarre things from the world of cans that I spotted over the last week.

First up, a quickie. What’s the worst thing about cans? The convenience, right? Yeah. Well, now with the help of some wax that problem has finally been solved.

No, me either.

And secondly, a slightly more interesting development, albeit one that still seems a little odd. Stan Heironymus reports in his Hop Queries newsletter that Yakima Valley Hops will soon start selling hops in cans. These will be small quantities targeted at home brewers. But why cans?

Cans are much more environmentally friendly than mylar, which is used to package most hops sold in small quantities. Consumers of beer know how to recycle cans. They aren’t as good with mylar…

Stan Heironymus

Better yet, the cans will be available in vending machines. OK… maybe that’s not necessarily ‘better’, but certainly sounds more fun.