Oskar Blues Brewery

Why it matters

The can was industry shorthand for cheap. This brewery canned a hop-forward pale ale by hand on a tabletop line and made the argument that the format is better for the beer — no light at all, effectively no oxygen, and it chills faster. Craft canning went from an eccentricity to the default in about a decade, and the packaging pages exist to explain a change this brewery started.

Details

Reference beers

• Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale6.5% ABV

  The first craft beer canned by a craft brewery, hand-filled in 2002 when the format meant cheap beer.

BeerHQ carries only the products that anchor something. This is not the brewery’s full range.

Styles it is associated with

• American pale ale — The beer that defined American craft brewing: clean pale malt under bright citrus and pine hop character, balanced rather than extreme.