Boozin’ Blog

Can it be? Lately more and more well respected craft and import beers have been showing up in cans. The beer can has long suffered from a negative stereotype – both of the quality of the brew as well as the person who drinks it – but things may soon change. Virtually every segment of the beer business has become more expensive recently. As brewers and drinkers alike hope that the situation resolves soon they may find some cost relief in the can.

But that won’t happen until one major stereotype is abolished – that canned beer tastes of metal. It is a common complaint that beer from a can seems to carry some of the flavor of the can. But this is a misperception.

Beer easily reacts with some metals and this proved to be one of the biggest hurdles that packagers had to jump when the beer can was being developed at the end of Prohibition. From the very beginning of canned beer there has been a protective layer between the liquid and the metal. With cans completely coated on the inside it is impossible for the beer to pick up the taste of the metal.

So where’s that taste come from? If you’re asking yourself this question then you’ve probably experienced this metally taste in beer yourself and you’ve spent the last three paragraphs calling me a moron under your breath. Before I share my theory with you ask yourself this: Have you ever noticed that metal quality in draft beer? And yet what are kegs made from?

OK, here’s my theory. I heartily agree that beer drank from a can seems to taste like metal. But the important word is “drank.” The top of a beer can, like every other side, is made from metal. So while the beer drinker takes sips he is literally putting metal in his mouth – or at least to his lips – and to his nose. The taste of metal isn’t coming from the beer but from the taste and smell of actual metal. Pour that same beer in a glass and chances are you couldn’t tell that it came from a can.

So - good beer in cans? Why not, I say.

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May 15 Kicks Off Summer Refreshment Movement with “Coors Light Code Blue”  

Golden, Colo. (May 12, 2008) – In a movement to deliver refreshment as cold as the Rockies in time for Memorial Day and the summer season, Coors Light “The World’s Most Refreshing Beer,” is declaring May 15 Cold Activation Day to celebrate its Cold Activated Bottle and Coors Light Code Blue campaign. 

Featuring a brand new look, the innovative die cut packaging indicates the beer is cold enough to drink when the mountains change from white to blue. 

“Continuing our quest to deliver the world’s most refreshing beer, we’ve improved our unique cold activated labels and are celebrating nationwide with Cold Activation Day,” said Lee Dolan, vice president of marketing for the Coors family of brands, Coors Brewing Company.   

To further celebrate the industry’s first bottles to give adult beer drinkers the ability to know when their beer is cold, Coors Light will bring “Coors Light Code Blue” to life, a signal for adult beer drinkers everywhere to enjoy Rocky Mountain cold refreshment and observe their love for the perfectly chilled beer.  A 360-degree marketing campaign including TV, radio, OOH, online and print will support Cold Activation Day and the Coors Light Code Blue campaign.  

Ever since Bill Coors invented the aluminum can in 1958, beer innovations and packaging enhancements have been a hallmark of Coors Brewing Company, with the goal of delivering the coldest, most refreshing beer to adult consumers.  Other recent innovations and packaging enhancements include:

• Vented Wide Mouth Can: A wider mouth and the first-ever built-in vent allows for a smoother pour
• Super Cold Draft: An innovative draft system that pours Coors Light below freezing
• Frost Brew Liner: The tinted blue liner that protects the refreshing taste of its beer          
• Plastic Bottle Cooler Box: The industry’s first ice-ready, one-time use cooler package

All 12-oz Coors Light and Coors Banquet bottles, as well as 24-oz Cold Activated Cans and 7-oz Coors Light bottles feature the new enhancements that bring cold refreshment to life.             ### 

About Coors Brewing CompanyCoors Brewing Company is a subsidiary of Molson Coors Brewing Company, (NYSE, TSX - TAP). It is the third largest brewer in the

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Have you ever gotten to the bottom of a beer and thought to yourself, “That was good, I just wish that there’d been less of it?”

Yeah. Me neither. Usually my thought is, “Damn, now I only have five left.”

But apparently somewhere in the bowels of the Coors marketing and packaging division someone thought that an 8 oz. beer is exactly what the masses were clamoring for. While I’m usually pretty good about keeping up with the industry this one snuck up on me. Typically, I find a press release or see a news article about new products before I actually see the products themselves but in this case I stumbled across these abominations in the cooler of a local convenience store. There they were, sitting on the rack next to regular, adult-sized cans like they had every right to do so – Coors’s new 8 oz. Silver Bullet can.

At this point I would like to point you to the company’s side of things but I can’t find it. No press release, no commercials, no nothing as far as I can tell. Except one little page on CoorsLight.com under the “new” tab and there all it says is:

Fact: With only 8 oz. to keep cool, the Silver Bullet can provides cold beer to the end of the can. Say hello to cold refreshment.

Really?

I need a beer…I’m thinking a 40 ouncer.

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