"oskar blues" news and stories

Until recently, if you wanted to slurp some of Triangle Brewing's spiced, thirst-quenching White Ale, you had to belly up to a bar and order a pint of the draft-only beer. But now, the Durham, North Carolina, brewery has taken a bold step by packaging its brews in cans, not bottles. Are the owners bonkers?

"There's a huge misperception that bottles are better than cans," cofounder Andy Miller told The News & Observer. For good reason. Cans have long been the domain of Budweiser, Miller and other big name brews that many beer connoisseurs consider dishwater drinks, leaving bottles to flavorful craft beer. It's a classier looking package, but as we've learned time and again: looks aren't everything. Aluminum cans offer numerous advantages over bottles. For starters, cans are better at warding off beer's biggest killers: light and oxygen, which make brews taste and smell like road-kill skunk. And that metallic tang that once plagued canned suds? Gone, thanks to flavor-saving linings.

Mama's Little Yella Pils Photo: Oscar Blues.

Crisp, floral Czech pilsners can typically lord their pedigree over their American counterparts -- the champagne to most stateside macro-breweries' bathwater (Miller Lite calls itself a "true pilsner beer.")

"Mass-market pilsners are liquid Muzak," says Marty Jones, the "lead singer and idea man" for Lyons, Colorado's Oskar Blues. To rebut the bland, watery brews littering the marketplace, Oskar Blues -- the first microbrewery to can craft beer -- has unveiled Mama's Little Yella Pils. "We're restoring a little honor to the concept," Jones says of Mama's, which re-creates a classic Czech pilsner with American craft-beer flair.

Instead of relying on cheap adjuncts like rice or corn, Mama's is constructed with 100 percent malt and a generous dose of spicy Saaz hops. But brewing a pilsner is an exercise in restrained elegance, unlike brutish IPAs and boozy stouts potent enough to incapacitate Paul Bunyan.

A religious epiphany is sometimes known as "seeing the light." In the beer world, however, it's all about seeing past the light -- Bud Light, that is. Though Budweiser's low-calorie brew is America's most frequently slung beer, now that craft breweries make up our country's fastest growing suds sector, pint-sized prophets are creating converts.

This Slashfoodie's brew-piphany occurred in the late '90s on a tour of Berkeley, Calif.'s Pyramid Brewery, where a Hefeweizen opened our eyes to the world Beyond Bud. Back in Los Angeles, we began frequenting beer-centric bars like Barney's Beanery, attempting to sample all the beers on their extensive list.

We're not alone in our new faith: Middle school teacher turned beer connoisseur Damico Ponzio was first moved by a Belgian (Triple Karmeliet), but Ommegang's Three Philosophers was the first American craft creation that knocked him out: "It had a boatload of flavor and [was served in] a wine bottle with a cork! I was completely blown away." Since then, Ponzio's become one of millions of people who regularly visit online beer communities like RateBeer.com where beer nerds congregate happily.

Some converts even go on to become apostles. Asked about his "Ah-ha!" moment with beer, Marty Jones' response is immediate: Ballantine India Pale Ale. "My cousin married a member of the Ballantine family and we would have bottles of their IPA," he recalls fondly. Now, as marketing man for the Oskar Blues Brewery (source of beloved canned microbrew Dale's Pale Ale), Jones travels the country "seeking out the unredeemed."

Got a beer that put you on the path to superior suds?

Beer snobs take note: Last year 48.7% of all beer consumed in the U.S. came via a can. Sure, that's no aluminum mandate, but it easily beats out bottles (41.5%) and the almighty draught (at a piddling 9.5%).

Pondering the power of the can isn't one of my regular activities, but after reading this article about MillerCoors continuing to tweak their highly advertised "cold-activated" technology, I was reminded that canned beer is big business -- so much so that making both sides of Coors Light cans cold-activated (with "a thermochromatic label, which changes color depending on temperature") as opposed to the former single-sided color-changing can is a news worthy event.

These can advances aren't unprecidented. Earlier this year Coors introduced the "Vented Wide Mouth" for smoother pours. And the now-ubiquitous wide mouth can itself is a relatively new phenomenon introduced in the late 1990s. But seriously, what's the big deal?

Funny you should ask; some small brewers are saying the same thing. Today I stumbled upon this interesting article on Chow.com discussing how changes in canning technology are now allowing for more canned products in the craft beer industry. Previously -- the stigma of canned beer aside -- canning micro brews wasn't even plausable. But with the recent introduction of smaller canning systems, craft brewers saw the opportunity to target new consumers. Credit Oskar Blues for leading the charge. Since canning their Dale's Pale Ale in 2002, the Colorado brewer has become nearly synomous with high-end canned craft beers... and made a name for themselves in the process.

Canned crafts have a number of appeals -- the cachet, a retro vibe, rarity -- beyond the basic portability and convenience of aluminum cans, but is it a trend that's here to stay? Well, 48.7% of beer drinkers can't be wrong. If the craft beer market continues to grow, and more craft beers end up in cans, that means more cans in our immediate future.

[Photo Credit: oskarblues.com]

Thursday is the perfect day to debut my beer version of the Slashfood Ate (8). Though, granted, I personally spend pretty much all seven days thinking about beer, for those in the workaday world, Thursday is a far healthier time of week to turn your thoughts towards weekend libations.

This Thursday I'm especially antsy as tomorrow I'm off to the NY Brewfest '08. Around 80 brewers are listed as participating breweries on NYBrewfest.com. As usual, I'm most excited to try new products, but of the names I recognize, these are the eight booths you'll certainly see me stopping by:

1. Hook & Ladder Brewing Company: Their Golden Ale is one of the best kept secrets in the "most drinkable beers" department.
2. Ithaca Beer Company: At the Philly Craft Beer Festival, the Ithaca rep was bragging about how their Flower Power IPA took down the Dogfish Head 90 Minute in a head-to-head competition. They deserved the victory.
3. Allagash Brewing Company: Call me what you will, but I'm all about the wheat beers and Allagash White is one of the best.
4. Southhampton: See above, but replace a single white with Double White.
5. Oskar Blues Brewery: Who says great beers can't come in a can?!
6. La Chouffe: An international classic introduced to me long ago by my friend Grant. I'm gonna try to grab him some swag.
7. Wolaver's Organic, Peak Organic & Orlio Organic: As reported last month in the New York Daily News and mentioned here on Slashfood, supposedly organic booze is less likely to give you hangovers. Admittedly, I've overlooked organic brews in the past, but I'm definitely going to chat with the breweries this time around. Wolaver's Pale Ale made the Daily News' best of organic list.
8. Magic Hat Brewing Company: Magic Hat has become my new old standby. If I still haven't had my fill by the time things are wrapping up, look for me slurring my speech over by the Magic Hat booth.

[Photo Credit: nybrewfest.com]