Colorado’s Craft Beer Cans Get Bigger In 2019

cans, Colorado’s Craft Beer Cans Get Bigger In 2019

Avery Plans for bigger beer cans in 2019

Craft beer packaging continues to evolve as does the way that consumers choose to enjoy it. And that, combined with huge new beer law changes set to take effect on January 1st , has led some craft breweries to move to BIGGER format beer cans.

Welcome to craft beer in 2019…..

According to Jonathan Shikes at Westword, bigger beer cans are destined to become increasingly visible in Colorado as some breweries address a perfect storm of factors that will impact the state’s ever-evolving craft beer landscape.

Colorado is finally saying goodbye to the hated post-prohibition law which only allowed for the sales of 3.2 beer at grocery and convenience stores. And on January 1st for the first time in Colorado history consumers will be able to purchase beer that is 4% or higher at those outlets.

And with this change beer retail outlets are expected to quadruple and convenience store cooler space to become even more valuable turf.

cans, Colorado’s Craft Beer Cans Get Bigger In 2019

Cooler placement to become even more important in Colorado

“I don’t think there’s been a situation in the states where the switch has happened in a market that is so well established with local craft beer. It’s just unprecedented,” Bristol Brewing’s Mike Bristol told KOAA. “I will say this is probably the biggest change in our industry since I started in 1994 and we just have to be flexible and see how it plays.”

As a result of those new laws and a consumer base more and more receptive to purchasing their craft beer in cans, brewers are looking to bigger format cans that can be sold either as 16oz four-packs or the even larger 19.2oz cans first introduced by Oskar Blues in 2012, which can be purchased as premium singles at the newly expanded outlets.

Great Divide, Avery and Left Hand Brewing (one of the last of the larger of Colorado’s craft breweries to turn to canning) will all be introducing beers in both 16oz and 19.2-ounce cans in 2019.

cans, Colorado’s Craft Beer Cans Get Bigger In 2019“As the landscape broadens and continues to evolve, we want to produce beer in packaging that will open doors for us,” Great Divide spokesman Matt Sandy explained to Westword. “Single-serve beers are on the rise, from ski resorts to music venues to liquor stores, and we’re adapting to what the consumer and the retailer want.”

In addition to Avery’s White Rascal, the Boulder-based brewery will also release a lager, IPA and some of its barrel-aged beers in 19.2-ounce cans in 2019.

With the emergence of the Hazy IPA, many brewery taprooms across the nation have already begun migrating to 16oz and in some cases the 19.2 format.

The bigger format cans also make sense at sports and concert venues where drinkers don’t want to spend all their time waiting in lines.

And when the state’s supermarkets and convenience stores begin carrying full-strength beers on January 1, cooler space is expected to tighten and premium 19.2 single cans will assume even greater prominence in Colorado’s increasingly competitive craft beer market.

 

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