Beer Can Appreciation Day was marked this month, and craft beer brewers have never appreciated cans as much as they do now.

On Jan. 24, 1935, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Co. of Newark, N.J., with help from the American Can Co., sent the first 2,000 cans of Krueger’s Finest Beer and Krueger Cream Ale to Richmond, Va. The cans had flat tops that required a drinker to punch two holes in it (one for drinking, one for air intake). By the end of 1935, Krueger and its larger competitors sold more than 200 million cans.

However, it wasn’t until 2002 — when Oskar Blues founder Dale Katechis started canning Dale’s Pale Ale as a means of drawing customers to his brewpub in Lyons, Colo. — that the craft beer community gave cans serious consideration. Though a novelty among craft brewers when Katechis first set up his canning operation, cans have become so popular among brewers that 550 of the nation’s more than 5,000 breweries now release their beers in cans, according to CraftCans.com.

The benefits of cans

Why cans? As Christian Ettinger, the founder of Portland, Ore.-based Hopworks, told us a few years back, the beer he ships in cans is roughly 30% lighter than a similar amount of beer packaged in bottles. Cans makes it less costly to ship greater volumes, but they also keep the beer in better condition.

“The three enemies of beer are sunlight, oxygen and heat, so let’s take the heat out of the equation, because you can control that in either package,” Ettinger says. “Aluminum is impervious to sunlight and is subject to lower oxygen levels when put in a can instead of a bottle, so two of the three enemies are mitigated to a greater degree in aluminum than they are when beer is packaged in glass.”

That light will cause a “lightstruck” chemical reaction that forms a sulfur compound that gives beer a “skunky” aroma and flavor. But what about oxygen? Well, Portland-based beer writer Jeff Alworth explains the oxygen-aided flavors he experienced while judging a local beer competition:

“From a sensory perspective, ‘oxidized’ describes an objectionable quality of staleness that may either just dull the beer or taste like paper or wet cardboard. But to a brewer, it’s a continuum; a beer at one month — well within the “fresh” zone of a beer’s life — is more stale than a week-old beer. It’s not stale, but it’s observably less fresh.”

Not only that, but cans are a bit less fragile than bottles, whose shard-shedding flaws prompted a massive recall of Sierra Nevada beers during the same week as Beer Can Appreciation Day. All of the above drive a strong argument for cans that makes it perfectly reasonable to worry about the bottle’s future, even if it isn’t in any real peril.

Container of choice

Craft brewers are giving every indication that cans are their container of choice. Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Founders was the first craft brewer to sell its canned beer in 15-packs in 2013. This year, it plans to move its seasonal beers Azacca IPA, PC Pils and Mosaic Promise into 15-packs as well. Fort Collins, Colo.-based brewer New Belgium will be putting its new Dayblazer session ale in canned 15-packs as well, while San Leandro, Calif.-based 21st Amendment will be putting its El Sully lager, Brew Free! or Die IPA and Hell or High Watermelon beers, among others, into 15-packs. Not to be outdone, Oskar Blues is putting its Pinner session IPA into 16-packs.

Speaking of Oskar Blues, it not only began offering 19.2-ounce stovepipe cans of its Dale’s Pale Ale to put into racetracks and stadiums, but it also invented one of craft beer geeks’ favorite bar toys of 2016: The Crowler. Oskar Blues and can producer Ball not only put 1,000 Crowler machines into the market since 2014, but it’s even gotten big chains like Kroger to seal beer inside 32-ounce Crowler cans. Yep, even the venerable growler jug is being upgraded to a can.

Back in 2015, the Brewers Association made its own argument to brewers who were considering adding cans to their lineup. Brewers Association economist Bart Watson noted that cans were easier to carry around (think beaches, hiking trails, golf courses), easier to recycle, easier to ship, easier to use (resealable cans and removable lids) and easier to implement (thanks to mobile canners). He also pointed out that, as CraftCans.com alluded to, cans now make up 12% of all craft beer sales volume. That’s still well behind the overall beer industry average of roughly 55%, which provides a lot of room for growth, especially for low-alcohol styles like Pilsner, session IPA, Berliner Weisse and others.

Metallic taste

So why aren’t more craft brewers diving at cans? Well, for one, drinkers still aren’t exactly taken with them. A Nielsen survey commissioned by the Brewers Association discovered that just 40% of drinkers thought the quality and freshness of canned beer was greater than or equal to that of beers in bottles. Meanwhile, the idea that canned beer tastes “metallic” — despite decades of improvements to can liners that are meant to eliminate that flavor — hasn’t dissipated, even in scientific studies. You can argue the merits of cans for days, but unless you pour beer out of a can and into a glass and show people that it doesn’t taste different, you aren’t winning that argument.

There’s also the not-so-small matter of obtaining the cans themselves. Can manufacturer Crown used to make cans for small breweries a few thousand at a time, but began requiring breweries to order full truckloads back in 2015. That same year, can manufacturer Ball bought out competitor Rexam for $7 billion. Don’t blame the big brewers for any perceived shortages, either, as Anheuser-Busch InBev BUD, +1.08% produces its own cans at seven Metal Container Corp. facilities around the country, while MillerCoors produces cans at its 340-employee Rocky Mountain Metal Container manufacturing plant in Golden, Colo.

A can is the closest thing to a serving-size keg that you’re going to find, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be craft beer drinkers’ only option anytime soon. For brewers who can get their hands on cans and convince drinkers that they won’t make beer taste “metallic,” cans are the ideal. For those who aren’t so lucky, you might just be better off taking things one growler at a time.

Jason Notte is a freelance writer based in Portland, Ore. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Huffington Post and Esquire. Follow him on Twitter @Notteham.