Editor’s note: Our new series takes a look at the local beer, wine and liquor industry—and what it takes to keep it growing.
When it comes to beer, we’ve all heard someone say, “It’s an acquired taste.” Taste, beer drinkers know, is everything—and how beer is packaged is a key factor in how it tastes. While it’s no secret that beer is sold in both bottles and cans, it may surprise some to know that cans provide better packaging for beer than bottles.
Why? Cans keep out light and oxygen better than bottles because of their opaqueness and tighter seals, thus preserving that fresh taste we all look forward to when sipping a beer.
These days, cans are also made from aluminum, making them (in comparison to bottles), easier to recycle, weigh less, and take up less space.
And recycling aluminum has even more benefits. Requiring 95 percent less energy and producing 95 percent fewer greenhouse gasses, cans made from recycled aluminum are best friends with Mother Nature.
But what’s that got to do with beer?
Wanting to reduce their environmental footprint, Red Hare Brewing Company has partnered with Novelis, the world’s largest producer of recycled aluminum sheet, in order to be the world’s first brewery to launch the evercan™ sheet.
Described as “the first certified high-recycled content aluminum designed specifically for the beverage cans market,” the evercan sheet is made with 90 percent recycled content, which means less production needed when making the can. Seventy-two percent less CO2 emissions are released compared to manufacturing glass bottles and 22 percent less CO2 emissions are released compared to manufacturing non-recycled aluminum cans.
Red Hare Brewing Company, an independent microbrewery in Marietta, Ga., is the first craft brewery in Georgia to can craft beer in aluminum cans. Red Hare’s craft beer has been sold in Georgia since August 2011, and it’s now available in Tennessee and South Carolina.
Consumers can also find mainstays like Watership Brown Ale, Long Day Lager, and Gangway IPA at their frequented beer and wine stores. Additionally, Red Hare offers a variety of seasonal and specialty beers, available throughout the year.
Approached by Novelis to work together one year ago, Red Hare is the exclusive company this summer, but several breweries have expressed interest, so others are expected to join at summer’s end.
With almost 400 craft brewers in nearly every state in the U.S. canning more than 1,300 different beers, Red Hare adds craft beer that will be, from this point forward, made in the evercan, and encourages other brewers to embrace the can as well.