Pour Man: Canned beers get crafty

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Canned Beer locator

Get Half Acre beer in cans at many places, including: Gannon’s Pub, 4264 N. Lincoln; Tokio Pub, 1900 E. Higgins, Schaumburg; Whole Foods, Binny’s.

Other beer-in-cans, and where to find them:

Arcadia Whitsun: Villain’s Bar & Grill, 649 S. Clark; Evanston First Liquors, 1019 Davis, Evanston

Berghoff Backyard Ale: Twin Anchors Restaurant & Tavern, 1655 N. Sedgwick; Gene’s Sausage Shop, 4750 N. Lincoln

Breckenridge Avalanche Amber: the House Pub Bar, 16 South 1st Ave., St. Charles; Armanetti Beverage Mart, 3530 N. Lincoln

Capital Island Wheat: Simone’s, 960 W. 18th St.; Whole Foods Market, 6020 N. Cicero

Capital Supper Club: the Publican, 837 W. Fulton; the Long Room, 1612 W. Irving Park; all Binny’s

Capital U.S. Pale Ale: Beer Bistro, 1061 W. Madison; Gold Crown Liquors, 3425 N. Clark

Capital Wisconsin Amber: Pick Me Up Cafe, 3408 N. Clark; Sky Grocer, 1255 S. Michigan; Leo’s Wines & Spirits, 3018 Hobson Rd., Woodridge

O’Fallon Wheach: Murphy’s Bleachers, 3653 N. Sheffield; WineStyles, 1433 W. Belmont; Whole Foods Market, 1550 N. Kingsbury.

Michael Austin

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Updated: October 26, 2011 12:21AM

Back before beer was a discernible commodity, before foodies embraced it, before craft breweries dotted the American landscape — when beer was just beer — there were two simple truths: Imports were better than domestics, and bottles were better than cans.

There was no debating this. Beer drinkers in the 1970s and 80s would have rather argued against the existence of the sky than dispute those two unwritten laws.

“Whoa — bottles,” was often uttered with equal parts amazement and intimidation when a six-pack of domestic bottles was plucked from a brown sack at a house party. Another phrase of the era was “Whoa — imports,” which almost exclusively arrived in bottles. When domestic cans came out of one of those bags, the common response was, “All right … more beer.”

Craft beers are the new imports, and cans are on their way to becoming the new bottles. Craft brewers from coast to coast are now serving up their rarified beers in classic, old-school aluminum cans, and the reasons all make sense.

For one, cans block light completely, which even brown bottles cannot do, and as we know, light is one of beer’s worst enemies. Light-blocking vessels such as kegs and cans (after all, a can is basically a miniature keg) keep beer fresher longer, and who wouldn’t want that?

“There’s the whole green initiative, too,” says Anthony Norkus, the craft and specialty brands manager at the Lincolnwood-based distributor Louis Glunz Beer, Inc. “Cans are recyclable and they weigh less to transport, so you can put more on a pallet and produce less of a carbon footprint. So, environmental impact is a close second.”

Cans also go where glass can’t — the beach, a golf course, a boat (none for the captain, thank you) — and cans get chilly much faster than bottles.

All of this would be irrelevant if the beer were not excellent. Well, it’s OK beer fans — the beer is excellent. It’s safe to drink out of cans again.

“There’s still that stigma of canned beer being crappy beer,” Norkus says. “Craft beer awareness has changed it a little, but it’s still there.”

Crappy canned beer is still there, too, but now it shares space on shelves and menus with great canned beer. According to craftcans.com, a database that keeps tabs on the canned craft beer trend, there are 132 craft brewers in 40 states currently canning beer or planning on doing so soon. There are 16 brewers canning beer in Colorado alone (totaling almost 50 distinct beers), and in California, eight breweries turn out almost 25 different canned beers.

Chicago’s Half Acre Beer Co. offers its Daisy Cutter, Over Ale and Gossamer Golden Ale in 16-ounce cans — containers so retro they might make you want to mount a CB radio under your dashboard or grow a mustache.

Finch’s Beer Co. on the Northwest Side is planning on releasing some of its microbrew in cans as early as August, and Revolution Brewing Co. also has plans for cans.

Wisconsin’s Capital Brewery has four cans available in Chicago — Island Wheat, Supper Club, Wisconsin Amber and U.S. Pale Ale —and for you fruit lovers, O’Fallon Brewery of Missouri offers Wheach (peach wheat beer) in a golden and orange can that screams summer. There are more listed below and they’re worth trying.

But now we shall address the alumino-phobes. Even back when you were drinking Goebel or Blatz out of 12-ounce cans and cursing its aluminum after (and before) taste, all you had to do was pour the beer into a glass. It’s never been the beer itself that tasted like aluminum; it’s been the aluminum top all along.

If you put your mouth on aluminum, you’re going to smell and taste aluminum. If you put your mouth on the rim of a clean glass, you’re going to smell and taste only beer. The glass is your friend in every possible beer-drinking situation.

“No craft beer guy drinks out of a bottle,” Norkus says. And no craft beer guy or gal is going to drink out of a can, either. You’ve got glasses, right? Fill them with beer and drink out of them.

When you are in one of those places where glass is not allowed, suck it up and drink straight from the cold can and be thankful that finally there are great beers in those tiny, portable, personal kegs.

To really have some fun, imagine that each can is actually a full-size keg and you are a giant. Craft beer in cans could change your perspective. Some night at a house party you might even hear yourself saying, in a loud giant’s voice, “Whoa — craft cans.”

Michael Austin is a Chicago free-lance writer. E-mail thepourman
@suntimes.com.