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N0KFQ > TODAY 24.01.16 16:12l 58 Lines 2523 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 82677_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Jan 24
Path: IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<JE7YGF<N9PMO<NS2B<N0KFQ
Sent: 160124/1505Z 82677@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.65
1935
First canned beer goes on sale
Canned beer makes its debut on this day in 1935. In partnership
with the American Can Company, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing
Company delivered 2,000 cans of Krueger's Finest Beer and
Krueger's Cream Ale to faithful Krueger drinkers in Richmond,
Virginia. Ninety-one percent of the drinkers approved of the
canned beer, driving Krueger to give the green light to further
production.
By the late 19th century, cans were instrumental in the mass
distribution of foodstuffs, but it wasn't until 1909 that the
American Can Company made its first attempt to can beer. This was
unsuccessful, and the American Can Company would have to wait for
the end of Prohibition in the United States before it tried
again. Finally in 1933, after two years of research, American Can
developed a can that was pressurized and had a special coating to
prevent the fizzy beer from chemically reacting with the tin.
The concept of canned beer proved to be a hard sell, but
Krueger's overcame its initial reservations and became the first
brewer to sell canned beer in the United States. The response was
overwhelming. Within three months, over 80 percent of
distributors were handling Krueger's canned beer, and Krueger's
was eating into the market share of the "big three" national
brewers-Anheuser-Busch, Pabst and Schlitz. Competitors soon
followed suit, and by the end of 1935, over 200 million cans had
been produced and sold.
The purchase of cans, unlike bottles, did not require the
consumer to pay a deposit. Cans were also easier to stack, more
durable and took less time to chill. As a result, their
popularity continued to grow throughout the 1930s, and then
exploded during World War II, when U.S. brewers shipped millions
of cans of beer to soldiers overseas. After the war, national
brewing companies began to take advantage of the mass
distribution that cans made possible, and were able to
consolidate their power over the once-dominant local breweries,
which could not control costs and operations as efficiently as
their national counterparts.
Today, canned beer accounts for approximately half of the $20
billion U.S. beer industry. Not all of this comes from the big
national brewers: Recently, there has been renewed interest in
canning from microbrewers and high-end beer-sellers, who are
realizing that cans guarantee purity and taste by preventing
light damage and oxidation.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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