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Thread: On this day in history...

  1. #1
    Join Date
    04-23-02
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    On this day in history...

    ......canned beer was invented.

    The first sale of canned beer took place 85 years ago today. On January 24, 1935, “2,000 cans of Krueger’s Finest Beer and Krueger’s Cream Ale” were delivered “to faithful Krueger drinkers in Richmond, Virginia.”[1]

    The idea was driven by the American Can Company. It’s initial effort to create beer cans flopped in 1909.”The cans couldn’t withstand the pressure from carbonation—up to 80 pounds per square inch—and exploded.” But they came up with a better approach just as Prohibition was coming to an end.[2]

    Still, executives at the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company were skeptical. They agreed to test out the concept only after being offered a risk-free trial. If it didn’t work, Krueger’s wouldn’t have to pay for the canning process.[2]

    Despite skepticism about whether consumers would accept canned beer, the innovation became an immediate success. “Within three months, over 80 percent of distributors were handling Krueger’s canned beer, and Krueger’s was eating into the market share of the ‘big three’ national brewers–Anheuser-Busch, Pabst and Schlitz.”[1]

    By the end of the year, 37 breweries offered the product and more than 200 million cans of beer had been sold.[1][2] Today, nearly half of the $20 billion industry’s sales come from canned beer.[1]

    One reason for the early success of canned beer was that it offered several benefits to consumers. “The purchase of cans, unlike bottles, did not require the consumer to pay a deposit. Cans were also easier to stack, more durable and took less time to chill.” During World War II, “U.S. brewers shipped millions of cans of beer to soldiers overseas.
    "Back after 5 years. I thought you had died.

    don"


    Splitting my time between the montane and the mesas

    The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
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    And miles to go before I sleep.

  2. #2
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    Cool history! I'm surprised they had problems with steel cans exploding.
    The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible - Arthur C. Clarke

  3. #3
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    In the days when I was still a major contributor to the financial statements of a few selected brewing companies, one of my hobbies I used as justification for my consumption was converting my dining room into a bar...At the time beer can collecting was a popular pastime, and I spent quite a few hours traveling about finding them...Some of the oddities were the 1937 steel Schlitz can with the conical top and screw-on cap...I also found an aluminum can that was double printed with a Michelob label over a Budweiser label...I eventually got a letter from a vice-president of Continental Can Co., telling me that it was an end-of-run production can in which the rollers are wiped clean and the first few of the new batch are supposedly discarded...He said somebody was obviously laying down on the job that shift, and let that one get through...

    I also created a ceiling in my bar in which all that could be seen was the bottoms of beer cans...I put the aluminum empties back in the plastic holders, and strung them on wire against the ceiling...I used the pull tabs (which were still detachable from the cans in those days) to make chains which I strung on the ceiling under the cans...I also scored some neon signs for the walls from liquor stores I frequented when they got new ones...When I quit drinking in 1977, I boxed up all the paraphernalia I had and gave it to my brother who intended to use it all in the next house he built...That didn't happen because his new bride decided it would not be a good influence on the family they planned...However I know he boxed up all the collectible cans and kept them, although nobody seems to be able to locate them these days...

    Today I wouldn't mind having those ceiling cans for my precious metals inventory in the garage, but they are long gone...Yesterday my trick knee was acting up, but I managed to find seven Bud cans on my shortened stroll......Ben
    The future is forged on the anvil of history...The interpreter of history wields the hammer... - Unknown author...

  4. #4
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    My favorite beer can story comes from 1963.

    I was in "school" at NSA in Ft Geo. G. Meade Md. One evening three or four of us decided to go fishing---after we picked up a few six packs. I think it was Black Label, but don't hold me to that. In any event, they were our first experience with the new flip top cans---and we thought they were

    In fact, we liked them so much we rushed to open another. The stream was small--as in narrow and it wasn't long until we found great fun in shaking up the cans, popping the tab, and soaking down the guys on the other side.

    Seemed funny at the time

    I still am amazed at the humor a drunk can find in the most vanilla of events.
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis

  5. #5
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    "The only thing that we learn from torture is the depths of our own moral depravity"

  6. #6
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    I once got a bottle of Budweiser with a Bud Lite cap.
    The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible - Arthur C. Clarke

  7. #7
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    Sorry to hear that.

  8. #8
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    I like it.

    Hunter
    I don't care if it hurts. I want to have control. I want a perfect body. I want a perfect soul. - Creep by Radiohead

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