The beer that made Milwaukee famous is set to try and do it again. Pabst Brewing, who owns the label, re-released Schlitz today in the brown longneck bottles using what they claim is the original recipe. Having had phenomenal success with Pabst and also recently re-released Primo, Pabst is looking to recreate that success with yet another nostalgic beer.

Pabst Brewing Company (PBC) is partnering with Louis Glunz Beer, Inc. in Lincolnwood, Ill. to distribute the classic Schlitz formula and has a longstanding and rewarding relationship with the beer distributor, based on Schlitz and other brands within the PBC portfolio.

Founder Louis Glunz I first supplied Schlitz for the 1893 World’s Columbian Expo in Chicago and 40 years later, his eldest son and successor, Louis Glunz II, tapped the first kegs of Schlitz when they arrived by train in Chicago on April 7, 1933. On that date, the Volstead Act was modified allowing the sale of 3.2 percent beer in advance of the ratification of the 21st Amendment which repealed Prohibition. The Brewers Association reports that over 1.5 million barrels of beer was consumed nationwide in the 24-hours following what was the beginning of the end of Prohibition!

Louis Glunz Beer, Inc. has since served as a Schlitz bottler for many years and has continued to distribute Schlitz in spite of the brand’s losing its “Gusto” along the way to keep up with beer trends. General Manager, Jerry Glunz, attributes the steady decline in sales of Schlitz to a changed formula in the mid 1970s and packaging that was converted from a full package line to only cans in 1998. “We’re confident that a return to the original formula and the classic ‘Brown Glass’ longneck bottles will revitalize the Schlitz brand,” said Glunz.

Borrowing a page from their 120-year history, representatives of Louis Glunz Beer, Inc. will deliver the first coveted cases of Schlitz “Classic 1960s Formula” this afternoon from a replica of its original horse-drawn wagon. The route through Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood includes two old Schlitz tied-houses, Schubas Tavern and Southport Lanes & Billiards, as well as Cardinal Liquors, 1000 Liquors, Chicago Brauhaus, Sheffield’s Bar, The Long Room, Simon’s Tavern, the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge, and Glunz Bavarian Haus. The product will also be available at Louis Glunz’s original shop, since renamed The House of Glunz, at Wells and Division Streets in Chicago’s Old Town.

“Louis Glunz Beer, Inc. introduced Schlitz to Chicago and we’re excited to work with them to re-launch the original formula,” said Brad Hittle, chief marketing officer of Pabst Brewing. “Their heritage with Schlitz is unsurpassed among beer distributors across the country.”

“We are delighted about the comeback of Schlitz, the brand that brought us to the dance,” said Jack Glunz, president of Louis Glunz Beer, Inc. “The ‘Classic 1960s Formula’ is just as we remember from the heydays, a perfect balance between full-flavor and easy drinking with ‘just a kiss of the hops.’ This re-launch is a tribute to my grandfather’s legacy!”

According to Kyle Wortham, senior brand manager for Schlitz, the classic taste profile of Schlitz “Classic 1960s Formula” is the result of research by Pabst Brewmaster, Bob Newman, who was named the 2006 and 2007 Brewmaster of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival. “Bob tracked down and interviewed retired Schlitz brewhouse employees and others to recreate the classic taste,” explained Wortham. Mr. Glunz, who also provided access to Schlitz marketing materials in his company’s archives, was among those interviewed.

In addition to a return to the original taste profile, dedicated to those who miss the full-bodied Schlitz as they knew it, Wortham said that the classic formula will feature heritage-inspired packaging and old-school attitude to reinforce the values that resonate with guys who remember the 1960s. A new print and outdoor advertising campaign includes imagery from that era and suggests that the intended drinker go back to a formula from a time when values mattered: “the cars were cooler, the athletes didn’t cheat, and the beer was better.” Marketing support also includes a new website, www.schlitzgusto.com, public relations, and tasting parties.

“Schlitz coined the phrase ‘Go For The Gusto,’ and we intend this campaign to reach beer drinkers where they live and remind them of some of the best times of their lives when even the beer tasted better,” said Wortham. “We’re setting the stage for a significant comeback.”

According to a story by my friend and colleague, Brent Ainsworth, in today’s Marin I.J., Iron Springs Brewery in Fairfax will be shutting down operations on August 15 of this year, due to a protracted struggle with their landlord in which the rent was to be raised by 53% in this down market.

The Brewers Association just announced the top 50 breweries in the U.S. based on sales, by volume, for 2007, which is listed below here. For the first time, they’ve also released a list of the top 50 craft breweries based on the new definition adopted by the Brewers Association last year. Here is the new craft brewery list:

1. Boston Beer Co.; Boston MA
2. Sierra Nevada Brewing; Chico CA
3. New Belgium Brewing; Fort Collins CO
4. Spoetzl Brewery (Gambrinus); Spoetzl TX
5. Pyramid Breweries; Seattle WA
6. Matt Brewing; Utica NY
7. Deschutes Brewery; Bend OR
8. Boulevard Brewing; Kansas City MO
9. Full Sail Brewing; Hood River OR
10. Harpoon Brewery; Boston, MA
11. Alaskan Brewing; Juneau AK
12. Magic Hat Brewing Company; South Burlington VT
13. Anchor Brewing; San Francisco CA
14. Bell’s Brewery; Galesburg MI
15. Shipyard Brewing; Portland ME
16. Summit Brewing; Saint Paul MN
17. Abita Brewing; New Orleans LA
18. Gordon Biersch Brewing; San Jose CA
19. Brooklyn Brewery; Brooklyn NY
20. Stone Brewing; Escondido CA
21. Rogue Ales; Newport OR
22. Long Trail Brewing; Bridgewater Corners VT
23. New Glarus Brewing; New Glarus WI
24. Kona Brewing; Kailua-Kona HI
25. Dogfish Head Craft Brewery; Lewes DE
26. Firestone Walker Brewing; Paso Robles CA
27. Great Lakes Brewing; Cleveland OH
28. Lagunitas Brewing; Petaluma CA
29. Flying Dog Brewery; Denver CO
30. Sweetwater Brewing; Atlanta GA
31. Bridgeport Brewing; Portland OR
32. Rock Bottom Brewery Restaurants; Louisville CO
33. Odell Brewing; Fort Collins CO
34. BJs Restaurant & Brewery; Huntington Beach CA</li
35. Victory Brewing; Downingtown PA
36. Mac and Jack’s Brewery; Redmond WA
37. Lost Coast Brewery; Eureka CA
38. Big Sky Brewing; Missoula MT
39. Pete’s Brewing; San Antonio TX
40. Otter Creek Brewing; Middlebury VT
41. Karl Strauss Breweries; San Diego CA
42. Breckenridge Brewery; Denver CO
43. Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant; Chattanooga TN
44. Anderson Valley Brewing; Boonville CA
45. Boulder Beer; Boulder CO
46. North Coast Brewing; Fort Bragg CA
47. McMenamins; Portland OR
48. Utah Brewers Cooperative; Salt Lake City UT
49. Capital Brewing; Middleton WI
50. Blue Point Brewing; Patchogue NY

From the press release:

The Brewers Association, which tabulates industry growth data, announced its annual list of the top fifty brewing companies. Released are both a Top 50 Craft Brewing Companies list and a list of the Top 50 Overall Brewing Companies. Statistics are based on sales in 2007.

“The majority of breweries in the U.S. are independent craft brewers who continue to push the envelope in flavor and diversity and who continue to set the pace for the beer category,” states Paul Gatza, Director of the

The Brewers Association has just announced the top 50 breweries in the U.S. based on sales, by volume, for 2007. Here is the new list:

1. Anheuser-Busch; St Louis MO
2. Miller Brewing; Milwaukee WI
3. Coors Brewing; Golden CO
4. Pabst Brewing; Woodridge IL
5. Boston Beer Co.; Boston MA
6. D. G. Yuengling and Son; Pottsville PA
7. Sierra Nevada Brewing; Chico CA
8. New Belgium Brewing; Fort Collins CO
9. High Falls Brewing; Rochester NY
10. Spoetzl Brewery (Gambrinus); Spoetzl TX
11. Widmer Brothers Brewing; Portland OR
12. Redhook Ale Brewery; Woodinville WA
13. Pyramid Breweries; Seattle WA
14. Matt Brewing; Utica NY
15. Minhas Craft Brewery; Monroe WI
16. Deschutes Brewery; Bend OR
17. Iron City Brewing (fka Pittsburgh Brewing); Pittsburgh PA
18. Boulevard Brewing; Kansas City MO
19. Full Sail Brewing; Hood River OR
20. Harpoon Brewery; Boston, MA
21. Alaskan Brewing; Juneau AK
22. Magic Hat Brewing Company; South Burlington VT
23. Anchor Brewing; San Francisco CA
24. Bell’s Brewery; Galesburg MI
25. Goose Island Beer; Chicago IL
26. August Schell Brewing; New Ulm MN
27. Shipyard Brewing; Portland ME
28. Summit Brewing; Saint Paul MN
29. Mendocino Brewing; Ukiah CA
30. Abita Brewing; New Orleans LA
31. Gordon Biersch Brewing; San Jose CA
32. Brooklyn Brewery; Brooklyn NY
33. Stone Brewing; Escondido CA
34. Rogue Ales; Newport OR
35. Long Trail Brewing; Bridgewater Corners VT
36. New Glarus Brewing; New Glarus WI
37. Kona Brewing; Kailua-Kona HI
38. Dogfish Head Craft Brewery; Lewes DE
39. Firestone Walker Brewing; Paso Robles CA
40. Great Lakes Brewing; Cleveland OH
41. Lagunitas Brewing; Petaluma CA
42. Flying Dog Brewery; Denver CO
43. Sweetwater Brewing; Atlanta GA
44. Bridgeport Brewing; Portland OR
45. Rock Bottom Brewery Restaurants; Louisville CO
46. Gluek Brewing (just changed its name Cold Spring Brewery); Cold Spring MN
47. Straub Brewery; Saint Mary’s PA
48. Odell Brewing; Fort Collins CO
49. BJs Restaurant & Brewery; Santa Ana CA</li
50. Victory Brewing; Downington PA

From the press release:

Twenty-one states are represented in the top 50 brewing companies list, according to the Brewers Association. California hosts eight top breweries. Colorado and Oregon each host five, and Pennsylvania hosts four top producers. The remainder of the top 50 operate from Minnesota (3), New York (3), Wisconsin (3), Illinois (2), Massachusetts (2), Missouri (2), Vermont (2), and Washington (2). Alaska, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, and Texas each host one.

The 5th annual Bay Area Firkin Gravity Festival was held yesterday at Triple Rock Brewery in Berkeley, California. Some of the stand out beers for me included Pizza Port’s Imperial Red, 547 Haight St., that Jeff Bagby brewed for the Toronado’s 20th anniversary, 21st Amendment’s Rye, Drake’s Wheatwine, Speakeasy’s Stout, Half Moon Bay’s authentic English-style brown and an interesting California Common from Oakland’s newest brewery, Linden Street Brewing.

This year, nearly thirty casks of real ale were available for sampling.

Triple Rock GM Rachaal with Ken Kelley from North Coast Brewing.

For many more photos from this year’s Bay Area Firkin Gravity Festival, visit the photo gallery.
 

For our 14th Session, the topic has turned decidedly personal. Our host, Stonch, has chosen the topic “beer people” with the knowing wisdom that “enjoying beer is as much about people as it is malt and hops.” It seems great minds do think alike, because I’ve actually been thinking about this a lot lately, but more on that later on.

I’ve been involved with beer since I was a kid, really, and I started thinking about it in a more studied way when I lived in New York City in the late ’70s. My involvement grew again after moving to California in the mid-80s, but became much more serious for at least the last twenty years sometime after I started homebrewing and wrote a bar guide to Silicon Valley in the early 1990s. Since then, I’ve been a beer buyer, contract brewer, festival volunteer, judge, tasting organizer, magazine manager and writer. In all those pursuits, I’ve encountered great swaths of people from all walks of life, socio-economic groups, ages, etc. all thrown together by one commonality: beer.

Having been on the business side of beer for a number of years, I got to know a lot of the folks at distributors, along with brewery sales representatives, brewery owners, merchandisers, marketers. In many ways, it’s a different world from craft world, the big companies have so many layers of people each doing one small part of the whole. And even though I often criticize the big brewer’s products and especially their business practices, for the most part the on the ground employees are usually pretty terrific people. It’s especially true at Anheuser-Busch, where I’ve met enough fine people to be impressed with their hiring methods. And Miller and Coors have some great people working for them, too. Seriously. You might not think so for all my complaining, but notice I’m rarely ranting against the employees, only the policy and decision-makers, and more often the consequences of those decisions.

With the small companies, as you’d expect, there’s a lot of multi-tasking with most employees (and usually the owner/brewer) doing all of the jobs. With them, there aren’t many layers from top to bottom, and as a result there’s much more transparency, warts and all, with the way they operate. But surprisingly, even with being so overworked, most still manage to have a positive outlook. It’s actually quite amazing to me. I’m sure they must be as busy, stressed out and pulled in many directions as any other overworked, underpaid segment of the economy. But for some reason, they manage to be enjoyable company, too, somehow. Not surprisingly, most are someone you’d like to have a beer with, and it’s remarkable to me that this is nearly universal, at least in my experience. It’s the primary reason I’m so supportive of the industry and generally will do whatever I can to extol the virtues of good beer. It may have been the beer that got me involved in the beer world, but it’s the people that keep me passionate about it and make it a joy to be a part of.

Eight days ago, it was Michael Jackson’s birthday. It would have been his 66th. One of the things I always liked about Michael’s writing was how much of the brewer’s story he liked to tell. Oh, there was always a lot about the beer itself, the process by which it was made, and so forth, but at the heart of his writing was always the personal story about the men and women who made the beer. I’ve always thought knowing the back story about the beer and the brewery adds something intangible to enjoying the beer, too. I suppose the more you know about anything, the more or better you’re able to appreciate it. I know there are a lot of people who insist “it’s all about the beer,” but I strongly disagree. Like anything crafted by the hand of man, the beer did not magically appear in a vacuum. The blood, sweat and tears of the brewer are what brought the beer into existence. His experiences and the decisions he made up to the point he made that beer you love has a lot to do with how he made the beer, why he decided to make it that way, and how it tastes. To deny those factors is like trying to appreciate Van Gogh’s Starry Night without knowing anything of his life, his trials and tribulations, his challenges with mental illness, his relationship with his caring brother and so on. For a fascinating illustration of how knowing more about the artist adds to your appreciation, rent the DVD collection the Power of Art by Simon Schama. He takes eight well-known artists’ most famous pieces and give them context, by telling the story of how each painting came to be. It’s an amazing glimpse into the creative process and brewers are no less artists for using a palette of hops, malt, yeast and water.

I’ll post and send out details later this month and I’ll create some graphics and put up a website for everybody to use and link to. If you like the idea, consider helping to spread the word about it. But in the meantime just think about a brewer you’d like to profile. The idea, in my humble opinion, would be to tell their story in whatever fashion you feel comfortable with, be that an interview, essay, video or what have you. Hopefully, over time it will grow. Perhaps one day there will be events honoring the best brewers out there at breweries, bars and restaurants all over the planet. We probably won’t see cards at Hallmark anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.

Brewers have given so many of us the pleasure of their artistry and enriched our lives with their beer since civilization began. So I think it’s time we recognized their efforts by celebrating their lives, their commitment and their craft. We’re all beer people, but without the brewers what would we be drinking?

As the old Czech saying goes:

“Blessed is the mother who gives birth to a brewer.”

To turn to a less controversial subject than autism (believe it or not, I was attacked by a few people for expressing my opinion about the mercury issue) let’s switch to politics. This morning’s San Francisco Chronicle has a very interesting article about republican presidential hopeful John McCain’s wife, Cindy McCain, whose family owns one of the largest Anheuser-Bush distributor in the United States, Hensley & Co. It’s believed to be worth about $250 million, with annual revenue of at least $300 million. From the AP article:

As heiress to her father’s stake in Hensley & Co. of Phoenix, Cindy McCain is an executive whose worth may exceed $100 million. Her beer earnings have afforded the GOP presidential nominee a wealthy lifestyle with a private jet and vacation homes at his disposal, and her connections helped him start his political career — even if the millions remain in her name alone. Yet the arm’s-length distance between McCain and his wife’s assets also has helped shield him from conflict-of-interest problems.

The article claims that not only was the Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. Political Action Committee one of McCain’s earliest political donors, but James Hensley (Cindy McCain’s father) and his company “gave so much money that the Federal Election Commission ordered McCain to give some of it back.”

As a longtime executive with the beer wholesaler, Cindy McCain is thought to be a multi-millionaire many times over, though the McCains have thus far refused to say exactly how much she’s worth and have kept all of her finances separate from his. “In government records, McCain is permitted to describe his wife’s salary at Hensley as simply ‘more than $1,000’ and, when listing her major assets, say only that they are worth ‘more than $1 million.'”

I’m going to stay away from commenting too much and just point out something about beer distributors and the way they’re usually characterized. It turns out the Chronicle only printed roughly half the story, probably for space reasons, whereas the Baltimore Sun, has much more about the beer angle. To wit:

Cindy McCain is Hensley’s chairwoman and holds at least a 20 percent stake in it, according to Arizona corporate records. She works mostly on strategic planning and corporate vision, said Hensley spokesman Douglas Yonko. The company is family owned, but Hensley won’t say whether Cindy McCain is a majority shareholder.

Family owned, yes, but remember that the NBWA last year campaigned against changes to the estate tax, basing their argument on beer distributors being small, family owned businesses who were being treated unfairly and couldn’t pass their companies on to their sons and daughters. As this makes clear, the real truth is most beer distributors — even the ones that really are family-owned — aren’t that small. The industry is dominated by beer wholesalers that have become increasingly consolidated and very rich.

Of the top 25 beer distributors in the U.S., only three of them (all in the bottom five) are single location wholesalers. The vast majority are multi-location chains of distributors. Hensley may describe itself as the No. 3 A-B house, but they’re 5th (and 8th overall), according to a Beverage World report of the top twenty-five it published in September. The largest, Reyes Holdings, has revenue in excess of $800 million and more than three-fifth of them have annual sales above $200 million.

McCains’ Bud wholesaler is also one that is still on board with the “100% share of mind” program A-B instituted several years ago offering incentives to distributors who sold only A-B products. If McCain is elected, our First Lady will be a Bud Girl.

I try not to let my personal life intrude too often into the Bulletin, but as regular readers no doubt know, it does happen from time to time. Today is one of those days, because April 2nd has been designated “World Autism Awareness Day” and I’m going to take this opportunity to help make more people aware of it.

When my son Porter was born the night before 9/11 in 2001, we awoke that next morning in the hospital, exhausted and a little nervous at being new parents. Our nurse came to tell us something was going on in New York, and we turned on the television just in time to watch the the plane fly into the second tower. Like everyone else, our lives were changed forever that day, but my life also changed for a very different reason. My son hit all his physical milestones on time, and a few even earlier, as he began walking at nine months. At times he didn’t react to loud noises and we were worried about his hearing, but were reassured after a hearing test declared all was right with his ears. By his first birthday, he wasn’t saying anything yet, but the pediatrician and our friends all told us not to worry, as every kid develops in his own time. We continued to be concerned, but bided our time, fully expecting him to start chattering away at any moment.

Porter at his first birthday party, trying unsuccessfully to drink some Russian River beer.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work out quite that way. By eighteen months, he’d said only a few words, primarily nouns for the things he wanted; food, milk, etc. By age two, things had not much improved and we took him to the Oakland Children’s Hospital. They said nothing beyond a speech delay and suggested we enroll him in preschool where he’d be around other kids who might encourage him to start talking by example. We did just that, and although things did improve somewhat, he continued to lag farther and farther behind his peers in terms of language development. When I’d pick him up, I’d sometimes watch him off playing quietly by himself while the other kids all played together. It was a heartbreaking sight and one which still chokes me up just remembering it. He looked so lonely in those days. He looked like he wanted to play with the other kids, but because he couldn’t talk to the other children he was essentially isolated much of the time.

Just before he turned three, my sister-in-law, a librarian and crack researcher, started noticing other things about Porter, probably because she didn’t see him as often as we did and so they stood out more for her. For example, he wouldn’t make eye contact with anyone. There were enough other language, behavioral and social skills symptoms on the checklist that fit him that we thought we were finally onto something. So we had a doctor with behavioral expertise examine Porter and also our local school district, who are theoretically bound to provide an “appropriate education” beginning at age 3, did their own analysis. Both came back with a diagnosis of autistic-like symptoms. Despite all the horror stories we’d read about autism, we were at least satisfied that at last we felt we knew what was going on, and that provided some comfort. It was certainly better than having no idea what was wrong. So I quit my job as the GM of the Celebrator Beer News to be home with Porter. He attended a special preschool run by the county where we live and we hired therapists, play tutors, and an occupational therapist. I did flash cards with Porter, read to him and just was there for him as much as possible. Little by little, he improved and began catching up to his peer group. By five, he was nearly caught up, though he was still often the odd kid out because of issues with pragmatics and his poor understanding of social skills. The school district pressured us to have him start kindergarten, but we resisted because we didn’t feel he was quite ready to be thrown into the deep end of the pool. They were worried about their budget; we were worried about our son. They refused to give us any additional assistance (it’s sadly a familiar story) and we considered suing them to force then to follow the law, but decided in the end that the money would be better spent on Porter. So we held him back a year and had him attend another preschool that modeled kindergarten but was more hands on in the hopes that the extra year would make him more prepared to start school.

Five years later at his 6th birthday party, shortly after starting kindergarten.

The extra year ended up being great for him and since we moved to a new school district, we happily now live in a place with a more responsive, caring group of educators. He’s been doing great academically through two report cards and has received all satisfactory and excellent marks. He’s not only caught up with his peers, but is actually doing above average these days, and we couldn’t be prouder of how far he’s come. He still has some social awkwardness and certain difficulty with playing sports and games, and interacting with other kids. He’s made a few friends, and he’s certainly better at it than he used to be, but he may always be the odd kid in his class. Given his parents (you know you were thinking it) that may be inevitable. A more recent evaluation suggests that despite his speech delay he may have Asperger’s Syndrome, a higher functioning spot along the autism spectrum of disorders.

What causes autism is the subject of much heated debate. Personally, I believe that mercury, while certainly not the only cause, is somehow linked to triggering autism. But because of what’s at stake, medical, pharmaceutical and government officials will never (at least not in their lifetime) ever admit that they unwittingly caused a generation of children to become autistic. This failure to even honestly address this possibility is at the heart of what bothers me about all of this. Autism was almost unheard of when I was a kid, but today something like 1 in every 150 kids has some form of it. There are thousands upon thousands of parents who watched their children deteriorate after receiving cocktails of government recommended shots, earlier and more often than during my generation, laced with mercury (as a preservative), one of the most toxic substances on Earth. For an excellent account of this, and the politics surrounding this issue, read Evidence of Harm by David Kirby.

Many autistic kids also have trouble with their stomachs, usually called leaky gut syndrome. A form of a gluten-free diet is sometimes recommended, which is how I originally got interested in gluten-free beer. That’s what led me to write an article for New Brewer last year on these non-barley, non-wheat beers.

But beyond the cause of autism, awareness is growing. There are many fine organizations that have sprung up to spread the word, raise money for research and lobby the government to be truthful. Some of these include the National Autism Association, Autism Speaks, No Mercury, and Safe Minds. There are undoubtedly many more, too. Consider one of them when it comes time to make a charitable donation. If you organize a beer festival and are looking for a charity to partner with, perhaps autism would be a worthwhile one to consider. I’m not familiar with any current beer festivals tied to raising awareness of autism, so perhaps it’s time. I’m certainly willing to help. Thanks for reading.

The official opening of Philly Beer Week began with the tapping of the keg by Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. I was on hand at the mini-beer festival held at the Marketplace at East Falls. Among the produce stands were twenty brewers sampling their beers and Don Russell was signing copies of his new book, Joe Sixpack’s Philly Beer Guide: A Reporter’s Notes on the Best Beer-Drinking City in America.

Philly Beer Week organizers Tom Peters and Bruce Nichols, along with Don Russel (on the right) as Mayor Michael Nutter says a few words before tapping the keg.

Me and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter.

For many more photos from opening of Philly Beer Week, visit the photo gallery.
 

There’s been a rumor floating around about this for some time now, but today New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins, Colorado has made it official. Beginning this summer, they will be offering their popular Fat Tire Amber Ale in cans. As the 9th largest brewery in America, this will make them the largest microbrewery to put their beer in cans to date.

From the press release:

New Belgium, known for its commitment to quality and sustainability, will begin distributing a short run of cans in June, just when concerts, camping trips and other outdoor activities are in full swing.

“Introducing cans was a natural choice given that they are outdoor-friendly, light for transport and readily recyclable,” said Bryan Simpson, spokesperson for New Belgium. “In addition to the lighter carbon footprint, Fat Tire can now travel to places where glass is not an option.”

Distributing cans will continue to help lessen New Belgium’s footprint by saving fuel during transport to other states by lightening the weight of the trucks. New Belgium has begun this process by using biodiesel in its Ft. Collins distribution trucks and in the trucks used during the Tour de Fat traveling events.

The cans, which are 100% recyclable, will feature Fat Tire’s original watercolor artwork. And for those beer lovers worried about Fat Tire’s taste changing in the can, fear not.

“We took a unique can-conditioning approach and its flavor was not compromised in any way,” added Simpson. “We ran a series of tests using our friends at Oskar Blues canning line and there was virtually no flavor differential.”