With so many flavors, you can crack open a can full of craft beverage flavor anywhere
Story by Vincent Corso
There used to be a time — really not that long ago — that brown bottles ruled the craft beverage landscape. Back then, if you were looking for a micro or craft beer to enjoy at home, you were more than likely to be bringing home a six-pack, or a case if you really liked it, of heavy glass bottles.
For years, cans were for domestic mass produced beers like Miller or Coors. This really put a damper on times when a canned beer would have been a lighter and more convenient option, like camping trips or beach days.
I recall being a craft beer lover in the early 2000s, back when I was younger and still had the energy to go to weekend-long music festivals. These are the kinds of places where glass bottles were prohibited. Glass bottles are breakable, and that can be dangerous when you have a lot of people walking around, some of whom may have lost their shoes in the dance tent the night before.
Anyway, this really limited the type of beverages I was able to bring to the party.
Of course, over the last 10 years or so, that has all changed. Now, basically all packaged craft beer, ciders, and cocktails are sold in cans. The only holdouts seem to be those that were known for their unique bottle shapes, like Sierra Nevada — you can question if this is still a craft beverage, but it was one of the old Gs — and New Belgium. But you can find them in cans as well.
The shift to cans was an obvious one to have happened. Cans are cheaper, lighter (you can ask my beer truck-driving brother; he much prefers to deliver cans than bottles), let in less light (light can make a beer turn skunky), and are easier to recycle.
When one local brewery made the shift from bottles to cans about eight years ago, one of the brewers explained to me that cans were basically mini-kegs, sealing the beer in an airtight metal container that let in zero light. I always enjoyed that comparison, although when I ask someone to grab me a mini-keg of beer, I always get a strange or annoyed look.
Since then, it seems like every craft beer maker in the area and beyond has adopted cans, with even the smaller breweries offering up canned beer to go. Where you once had to haul a large glass growler (a growler is a 32-64-ounce refillable bottle) to your local brewery for a fill-up, now you can come in empty-handed and leave with a freshly filled crowler (a can growler; do you see what they did there?!) of your favorite local brew.
My collection of glass growlers now sits sad and empty on my basement shelf mostly because I never remember to bring them anymore.
It has been an interesting change for sure, but you may be wondering, why do I bring this up now?
Well, because there is another trend that has local craft distillers joining this canning revolution: canned craft cocktails.
Of course, canned ready-to-drink cocktails have been in the mainstream for quite a few years now, and there are too many to name. In fact, at a time when the craft beverage industry has been in a bit of a downshift, they are one of the big areas of growth.
Still, I was somewhat surprised when I saw that Centre County’s oldest craft distillers, Big Spring Spirits, announced that they were dropping their own ready-to-drink canned cocktail to celebrate their 12th anniversary this past July.
I was intrigued for sure.
Trailwater Premium Refreshers are made with Big Spring Spirits’ premium vodka, fruit, and award-winning spring water from Bellefonte. Flavors include blueberry zuzu, cranberry tangerine, peach basil, and strawberry lemon.
That all does sound very refreshing to me.
I especially love the fact that if you want a convenient alcoholic beverage to take with you camping, to the beach, or on any other adventure — like I said, I am too old for music festivals — besides beer, you now have a local craft option to take along with you.
I have not tried Trailwater Premium Refreshers yet, but one thing I do know for sure is that Big Spring Spirits knows what they are doing. They make some of the best spirits and craft cocktails in town, so I am excited to try this new endeavor.
After all, it’s in the can.
Cheers! T&G
Vincent Corso enjoys drinking local and meeting new people at Central Pennsylvania’s many interesting establishments.
