National Beer Can Appreciation Day is your day to fete the blood , exertion , tears , and ingenuity that work into you being able to crack open a stale one .
Before proscription , the main vessels for consume beer were feeding bottle and glasses used to down draught suds . But Pabst and Anheuser - Busch know there was a dependable way , so theyattemptedto engineer a functional beer can in the twenties . Unfortunately , their plans fizzled in the Wake Island of the 18th Amendment .
In the early 1930s , just before Prohibition was officially vacate , the American Can Company created a useable beer can prototype that New Jersey ’s Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company tested with just2000 cansof their Krueger ’s Special Beer . The 12 - ounce can offer the high alcohol message potential at the time—3.2 percent — and obtain rave reviews from 91 percent of those dedicated drinkers who were invited to touch in the first batch , with the vast legal age of them saying it tasted more like draft beer than its bottled counterpart ( which was a good thing ) .
Given the production and shipping costs for heavy bottles , canned beer was financially smarter for breweries in the 1930s , too . nursing bottle were alsoreturnableat the time , which not only added another transportation cost for brewery , but necessitated more man - power for review of whether or not a bottle was primed for reuse . Which is why the invention of the beer can was so revolutionary — and why it has an official holiday on the calendar ( January 24 ) .
Since its invention in 1933 , the beer can has undergo several remodels and tweaks .
The Flat-Top Can
Beer can pop with a flat - top design , where you needed to puncture holes in two opposite sides of the top for the beer to pour out properly . Although it was just a standard cylinder , these can were almost unwieldy . They were originally made from tin , then steel , which made themtall and heavy ; switching to aluminum eventually made them more realizable . Pabst popularize the bland - top can in 1935 as the first large brewing company to distribute tinned beer .
The Cone-Top Can
Also in 1935 , the G. Heilemann Brewing Company and Schlitz switch to a cone cell - top ( or spout - top ) stylus of canning . After some dissatisfaction with the flat - top , the spout - top offered a more convenient direction to swig lather ; its openingresembledthe chess opening of a bottle , but with the prognosticate quality of a can . Cone - top cans were embraced by smaller brewing company because their factories were better - beseem to cone - top production . As brewery bear on to upgrade , though , cone - tops cans went nearly entirely out of production by around 1960 .
The Pull-Tab Can
It was n’t until 1963 that the beer can underwent itsmost rotatory — and lasting — change . The Pittsburgh Brewing Company begin sack their darling Iron City Beer with a then - stigma - unexampled drag - tab expressive style can . The pull tab - way can ( also known as a tab top or down top ) command no add-on other than your manus to be afford . Just pull the tap to rip spread the spout and enjoy a crisp , moth-eaten beverage . Shortly thereafter , Schlitz flip over to the puff - lozenge , and by 1965 it was the can standard among breweries full-grown and small .
The Stay-Tab Can
What the puff - tab can provide in convenience , it lacked in waste material efficiency . The pulled tabs often terminate up on the ground , have bedding and some significant environmental issues . animate being — both wild and the domesticated variety — regularly attempted to snack on the shiny ( and sharp ) metallic element tabs they ’d find , and terminate up choking on them . When deteriorate in spot where hoi polloi often went brake shoe - less , like the beach or a backyard , they were a chance to scanty infantry . Then along come the stay - chit .
Introduced in 1975 by Kentucky ’s Falls City Brewing Company , the hitch - tab can is the one we apply today — the kind of can that you’re able to pop open without fear of a stray tab wreaking havoc on your foot , or your dog . Which is yet one more thing to be grateful for on National Beer Can Appreciation Day .
