Since its launch more than 20 years ago, Dogfish Head, the king of highbrow breweries, has not canned a single one of its beers. That may have made sense when Dogfish Head started up back in 1995, when cans were considered to be for the cheap beer that people drank at frat parties. But beer snobs eventually realized that cans are good for beer, and there’s been a surge of craft breweries — Evil Twin, Two Roads, Green Flash, Lagunitas, etc. — that have embraced them. Now, after holding out for years, Dogfish Head has finally seen the light.
By the middle of the month, the Delaware brewery will release one of its standards, the 60 Minute IPA, as its first-ever canned beer. The cans will only be available in mid-Atlantic states at first, with the brewery making them available everywhere it distributes next year. Why did it take them so long? Founder Sam Calagione says he wasn’t thrilled with canning tech early on in his career, so Dogfish Head and beverage-vessel producer Kroner designed artisanal cans from scratch.