Beer Can Appreciation Day – Ten facts about beer cans

While beer cans are wildly popular on Fridays, this particular Friday happens to be the day in history when the first beer can was sold, so it is remembered as Beer Can Appreciation Day. While beer cans have undergone many changes in style and structure, cans have made it possible to enjoy a beer in ways and places that glass simply cannot go.

Since it’s Beer Can Appreciation Day, and what better way to mark this celebration than with facts about America’s favorite beer-holding vessel?  How many of these did you know?

Did you know:

1. Beer cans were first invented in 1935. Krueger’s Finest and Krueger’s Cream Ale were first sold in cans in Richmond, Virginia.
2. Beer cans chill down faster than bottles.
3. Beer cans are the most recycled packaging materials on earth.
4. Beer cans are preferred by most brewers because they help keep out two of beer’s worst enemies: light and oxygen.
5. Cans are better for brewers’ and consumers’ wallets – they are lighter and cost less to transport than bottles.
6. While beer bottles have always outsold beer cans, 2022 could be the first year where beer cans dethrone their glass brethren from the #1 spot.
7. Beer cans, at one time, were capped with bottle caps. As a transition between bottling equipment and canning equipment, manufacturers made it possible to seal a beer can with bottle caps.
8. One large keg of beer (a half-barrel of 15.5 gallons) contains the liquid of 165 twelve-ounce cans of beer.
9. In 2018, the United States beer industry sold over 2.8 billion cases of beer.  That’s more than 67 billion 12-ounce cans of beer!
10. The state of Florida produced enough beer last year to sell 2.3 gallons (or roughly 24.5 cans) of beer to every resident of legal drinking age.

What are the best ways to celebrate Beer Can Appreciation Day?

Enjoy beer from a can! Whether you enjoy local craft beer like Infinite Ale Works Trails or Lake Tribe Red Cloud, national craft beer like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale or Samuel Adams Boston Lager, or a drinkable lager like Miller Lite – crack one open and savor the flavor.

Check out beer in slim cans! Beers like Blue Moon Light Sky are brand new to cans and available in one of the newest types of cans: slim cans.

Appreciate the art on a beer can’s label! Check out the unique art of beers like Coppertail Brewing’s Free Dive IPA cans with art by artist Evan Harris, Swamp Head Brewery’s eco-themed art on their Stumpknocker (or any other) cans, or the turtle-themed adventures of Terrapin Beer Company’s Hopsecutioner or Up-Hi IPA cans.

When you’re finished with the can, recycle it and revel in one of the finest attributes of the can.

However you decide to celebrate Beer Can Appreciation Day, we hope it’s with one of these wonderful vessels in your hand!  Cheers!