The Beer Can Turns Seventy-Five

Beer: It's been brewed and enjoyed for thousands of years, and was on hand and in mug as the founding fathers claimed independence and cobbled together a new nation. And the golden libation now marks a milestone in how it has most recently been purchased and consumed, with the 75th anniversary of the introduction of the beer can.

As Live Science reports, New Jersey's Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company was the first brewery to put beer into cans on January 24, 1935 with a modest test market of the innovation in  Richmond, Virginia area stores. It goes without saying that the test run was a smashing success. The concept of beer in a can was an instant hit and just kept growing. Today, of the average 22 gallons of beer we drink annually, the majority of that volume comes to us makes its way to our fridges (and our gullets) in cans. And as the aluminum can is "the most valuable beverage container to recycle," according to Earth911, we can enjoy our cold one with a clear-ish conscience.

The development came quickly on the heels of Prohibition's demise, but with the Great Depression gripping the nation, breweries were eager to find opportunities to slash costs. The development of the beverage can offered a packaging item that was much lighter than glass bottles and less expensive to transport.

Beer cans have witnessed several key changes in their design and manufacture. For their first few decades, they were made from steel and required a can punch to put a pair of opposing triangular holes in the top of the lid. Can manufacturers began the move away from steel beginning in the late 1950s in favor of lighter-still aluminum. Innovations in opening mechanisms started to appear at about the same time with the development of the pull tab in 1962. Resulting in an unintended litter problem, and in one case reportedly documented by the New England Journal of Medicine, of pull tab inhalation (no doubt also unintended), pull tabs were replaced by the stay tab opening mechanism in use today beginning with its mid-1970s development.

And so we hoist a cold one: a very happy 75th to beer in a can! Don't forget to recycle when done, because we're also wishing for many happy returns.

Photo courtesy of chidorian via flickr