"Tastes great!" vs. "Less filling!" it's not yet. But the debate over whether craft beer is best in bottles or cans is coming to a head.

While the vast majority of U.S. craft brewers package their product in brown bottles, the number putting aluminum cans on store shelves has grown between 50 percent and 100 percent in the past year. Blue Moon, the popular Coors brand that competes in the craft segment, makes its Texas debut in canned form this week.

And Texas' own Shiner Beers has doubled sales of its Bock and Blonde in cans over the past six months, largely because it started releasing those beers in 12-pack boxes in addition to six-packs, said Jaime Jurado, Shiner's San Antonio-based director of brewing.

Cumulatively, sales of craft beer in 12-ounce cans were up 80 percent in the first half of 2010 compared with a year earlier, according to data compiled by marketing analyst SymphonyIRI Group. That compares with 11.2 percent growth in six-pack bottles of comparable size.

Cans still have a long way to go to catch up. In the first half of 2010, craft brewers sold $376.5 million worth of beer in bottles, compared with $2.3 million in cans.

Yet craft brewers — generally smaller, independently owned companies that use premium ingredients and lack the production-scale savings enjoyed by mass-market giants — have been turning to aluminum in greater numbers since Colorado-based Oskar Blues got the can rolling in 2002.

Oskar Blues spokesman Chad Melis makes a three-point case for cans: 1. They completely block sunlight and have a tighter seal against oxygen, offering better protection from the two things that degrade beer; 2. They are better for the environment because the lighter, more compact cans can be shipped 100 cases per pallet, compared with 60 cases of bottles, requiring less fuel for transportation; and 3. They don't break like glass, making them good for hikers, bikers and others enjoying outdoor activities.

Standing out

Dave Fougeron, co-founder of Southern Star Brewing Co. in Conroe, noted another huge incentive for startup breweries: canning lines don't cost as much as bottling lines.

Fougeron also believes cans helped differentiate the brand when Southern Star began production two-and-a-half years ago. The brewery is on pace to double production in 2010, he said.

"I attribute some of our success to being in a can," he said. "It really sets us apart at the retail level."

Still, for many consumers, cans recall dads with beer guts or college kids with cheap swill. It was a can that John Blutarsky crumpled against his forehead in Animal House.

"There's nothing inherently wrong with cans — except the cognitive dissonance which occurs when we realize that Bud Light comes in a can. And Keystone Light. And Old Milwaukee Light. Etc.," wrote one commenter to the Chronicle's Beer, TX blog. "Brand-wise, I believe I'd prefer a craft ale in a bottle. Unless I can get it on tap."

Another commenter said he declined to pick up a six-pack of Southern Star because, "I was turned off by the can. It may be an irrational fear but mentally I taste the can."

Jurado said old stereotypes do "a great disservice to those great craft beers" available in cans. Technology has improved from 20 or 40 years ago. Because linings are coated, he said, the beer does not come in contact with the aluminum. "Any tinny or metal taste, I would say, is imagined," Jurado said.

Glass means class

Shiner added cans to its production line 14 years ago to accommodate airline sales, but Jurado said the company remains committed to bottles. Cans, he said, are great "for golf courses, the beach and the like ... places where you can't have bottles."

Houston brewer Brock Wagner of Saint Arnold Brewing Co. has been bottling for 16 years. He acknowledged that beer in a pint glass will taste the same, whether it's poured from a can or a bottle.

But, he said, special beers such as the Saint Arnold Divine Reserve series will not improve with age in a can the way they do in bottles. "That's a real limitation," he said.

Wagner said he has no intention of switching to cans because glass maintains a "psychological" edge in the pricier craft segment.

"If people are going to spend eight bucks on a six-pack, they want it in a bottle," he said. "... We don't want to put our product in a package that somehow conveys cheap, low-quality beer. There's no doubt that cans still carry some of that stigma."

The Glass Packaging Institute trade group sums it up this way on its website: "Just like Sunday football, beer in glass is an American tradition. People prefer the taste, look, and feel of beer in glass."

One knowledgeable can fan, Ben Fullelove, owner of the craft-beer bar Petrol Station, isn't so sure. He said his first preference is kegged draft beer because that's "the truest way to drink the beer." Canned beer, he said, is the next best thing.

Regardless, he's cheered by the emergence of cans to help bust the beer-gutted-brew-guzzler stereotypes.

"It's nice to see craft beer associated with an active lifestyle," Fullelove said.

ronnie.crocker@chron.com