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May 20, 2008 8:15 pm US/Mountain
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Fat Tire Ale Cans Easier To Take On The Go
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4/AP) ―
New Belgium Brewing Co. plans to offer its flagship Fat Tire Amber Ale this summer from something other than the tap or glass bottles: aluminum cans.
The brewer's new canning operation was estimated to cost about $1 million and will produce 50 to 60 cans per minute, a slow process by beer standards. Spokesman Bryan Simpson says that will let fans take Fat Tire to places and events where glass might not be allowed or isn't convenient. They fired up the canning line Tuesday.
"It's kind of a cozy little apparatus. It'll go about 60 cans per minute," Simpson said. "You can take a can into the park and take it back out with you. You can take it to the stadium or outdoor auditorium, so it's got a little bit more diversity than glass traditionally does."
Simpson says the Fat Tire that comes in cans will be "can-conditioned" with live yeast, so its flavor should not be affected. Despite popular perceptions about canned beer, the company's taste tests show the canned version tastes the same as the bottled brew.
"I think that's what's really interesting about this is that there's a lot of preconceptions about things, and when you taste a very flavorful beer coming out of an aluminum can, its a little surprising," Simpson said.
Simpson says the cans protect the beer from light better than brown glass, and since they're lighter, it takes less fuel to ship beer in cans.
"They do ship lighter, as far as that goes, so getting them out on the road, there's a little bit less of a carbon footprint on the shipping piece of that," Simpson said. "And aluminum is highly recyclable, as long as it gets back to a recycler."
The bottles of Fat Tire are shipped across the country, but at first Fat Tire in cans will only be available in Colorado. The brewers are still tweaking the canning line to make it run smoothly.
Other craft brewers have also been successful using cans.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)