The First Beer In A Can

Some people might consider it a national holiday. It was on this date in 1935 the first beer in a can was introduced in this country.

In a test run, beer drinkers in Richmond, Va. were the first to try Krueger's Finest Beer and Krueger's Cream Ale, and 91 percent liked it. So they began full scale production.

Thank the American Can Company for figuring out how to do it. After several years of research, they developed a can that was pressurized and had a special coating to keep the beer from reacting with the tin.

Within three months, Krueger’s beer was being handled by over 80 percent of distributors around the country, and they were actually affecting the sales of the “big three” -- Anheuser-Busch, Pabst and Schlitz.

It was a no-brainer for those companies to go with cans too. They were easier to stack, easier to handle and took less time to chill.

Beer is a $20 billion a year industry in this country, and half of it is canned beer.