Wynkoop Brewing’s Black & Can, Black Lager, is a clever and very useable name. While they didn’t ask me, here are 2 reasons why we give it a thumbs up:

• It’s a play on words (Black & Tan) that should make those familiar with beer smile. All takers, women and men.
• The graphics look very German with no inappropriate sexuality – it’s focused on the quality beer in the can and straight forward design.

Wynkoop Brewing Company, Denver CO

Canned beer is a great choice and a better one (over glass) all the time per sustainability. It’s encouraging to hear about more and more breweries canning their beer.

The days of tin-y tasting beer is more than over. If you have a hesitancy about present day canned beer, it’s all in your head – challenge yourself to try all the ‘newer’ canned beers you can wrap your fingers around.

This also means we can teach everyone that using cans for beer portability and enjoyment makes Mother Nature happy.

And when Mother’s happy, we can all be happy. Pass me a Black & Can, please….

To continue on the Canned Beer theme, today we’re expounding on yesterday’s post: Facet #4 is Canned Beer and Sustainability.

Watch out for light!

Women want products from companies that exercise and actively practice sustainability. No green washers need apply.

Canned beer is a big move in the right marketing beer to women direction. Bottles are unsafe and not allowed into most parks and in other outdoor venues where they may shatter or otherwise break, potentially causing damage to the environment, a person or other animal, or equipment. Either way, bottles are dicey companions. Kegs are cumbersome and heavy.

Cans are also very light and for anyone who has camped with the “pack it in, pack it out” in place knows that cans are not only lighter weight, since they’re crushable and still recyclable, they’re very muscle friendly.

Women like products that are kind to Mother Nature. Canned beer is one of those products. Consider canning your beer, changing over from glass bottles to aluminum cans, and in general promote this sustainable step.

We can all enjoy more beer for longer when we take care of the planet first. Women agree.

31 Facets of Women & Beer series starts here

Let’s talk next about canned beer as Facet #3.

Maui & Black Star: tasty canned beer

There’s still a lot of old memory prejudice for canned beer. That it still tastes ‘tin-y’, that it’s low rent, that it’s cheap beer or that it’s ‘bad.’

Throw all of those out. The best way to get women to embrace canned beer is to do tastings and pairings with canned beer.

Some may already know that a canned beer is better than a bottle in that: there’s absolutely no light that can penetrate the can (vs. any color glass short of completely opaque) and that there’s very low head space inside the can for less chance of oxidation.

When we give a woman a fresh, well taken care of canned beer, she’ll embrace the experience. Changing behavior and ideas is the key here.

And this ‘can’ be true whether or not she actually likes the particular beer or not. When you educate on the qualities of canned beer and it’s truly healthy beer your teaching with, then she’ll be willing to try other canned beers.

We’ll cover more canned beer ground tomorrow for facet #4: canned beer and… tune in.

31 Facets of Women & Beer series starts here

Here’s to beer – in a can. It’s Beer Can Appreciation Day!

Celebrate Beer Can Appreciation Day with the beer of your choosing

We’ve come a long way from the tinny tasting can of old. Today’s canned beer makes a whole mash tun’s worth of sense.

1. Cans are the most recycled packages on the planet.
2. They’re lightweight so it’s a lower carbon footprint for shipping from brewery to tap.
3. You can take them in (and pack them out) of recreation areas.
4. No light = no UV damage.
5. Small head space in the packaged canned beer = lower instance of degradation due to ‘air’

Go find your favorite canned beer today – there are many, many breweries that now can, including the majors. Enjoy whatever beer you favor in a can. Plan on attending the very fun and tasty 3rd Annual International CANFEST this fall (dates pending).

Actually do the beer a favor – pour it out of the can into a glass. This should hold true for bottles and kegs as well. Dash your old thoughts of canned beer and embrace this great choice.

Celebrate canned beer today!

If you’re a person who gets out and about, particularly to parks and areas where bringing glass is verboten, then look to cans.

Beer in cans is a smart choice

Canned beer is miles ahead of where it used to be and more and more craft beer is being carefully canned for every one’s enjoyment. There are a number of reasons canning beer is smart for the beer, for the brewery, for the distributor and for the consumer.

1. Aluminum cans are eco friendly. They’re lighter weight (reducing carbon footprint in shipping), and are almost infinitely recyclable into new cans  and require way less raw material into recycled vs. new. I’ve heard up to 95% less bauxite, here’s another vantage point.

2. You can bring canned goods into parks and recreation areas. While you most likely wouldn’t slip a bottle of beer into each ski pants pocket, cans would be good. If you wipe out with cans you’ll still not (likely) gashing your leg wide open and you’re respecting the rules of no glass. Still pack everything out, of course.

3. Cans eliminate light. UV and fluorescent light is the enemy of beer. Canned beer totally gets rid of light as an element of danger (keep it cool though too!).

4. Cans have less head space inside than bottles. And less gas, air or otherwise, is better for beer. Oxygen in particular is bad for beer.

5. Cans are lined now where as they used to not be – hence the strong (if not accurate theses days) taste memory of a metallic taste. Regardless, it’s best for the beer and your flavor experience to pour a beer out of whatever vessel it comes in and into a glass. Can, bottle, or keg.

Having been at the inaugural CANFEST in 2009, it was heartening to see that the attendees clearly didn’t give a rip what kind of container the beer came in. They were simply there to enjoy it.

So enjoy your beer and think about cans, or re- think it if you have a bias. Dozens of US brewers are now canning…it’s a great choice for the beer, the drinker and the earth.

This is a good article on outlining why cans can be a good option. Thinking about it is the first step.

Indeed, whatever receptacle we choose to get our beer in, be conscientious of its impact, how, why, when, again and so forth.

Taste profiles of beers right out of a can and right out of a bottle and right out of a keg and right out of a serving vessel….

Keep in mind beer is always best fresh, best served how it should be served regardless of how it comes.  There are resources aplenty of the sensory science behind glassware. Rebecca would know for sure.

One Myth I’m out to bust with my research and work in women & beer (consumer angle) is that cans are bad for flavor.

I feel compelled many times to climb on the soap box, or barrel as it were, and say “No!” try it, you’ll like it…Drinking blindfolded would help.

This post is a great example of how you can help bust that myth.

The great thing to promote for canned beer is that the planet benefits more – recycled aluminum cans take 95% less energy to recycle, are lighter weight (good for shipping and transporting therefore reducing emissions), and are acceptable to pack in/pack out to outdoor enthusiasts.

Use these pieces of information to help promote canned beer. Women will respond.

Photo courtesy of Flickr by Urbandwoodswalker