January 24, 2013 5:25 pm If you’ve ever drank beer out of a can,
you can thank Gottfried Krueger Brewery. They were the first
ones, 78 years ago today, to put the tasty beverage in a can and
offer it up to consumers. Wired writes: Krueger had been brewing
beer since the mid-1800s, but had suffered from the Prohibition
and worker strikes. When American Can approached with the idea
of canned beer, it was initially unpopular with Krueger execs.
But American Can offered to install the equipment for free: If
the beer flopped, Krueger wouldn’t have to pay. So, in 1935
Krueger’s Cream Ale and Krueger’s Finest Beer were the first
beers sold to the public in cans. Canned beer was an immediate
success. The public loved it, giving it a 91 percent approval
rating. Compared to glass, the cans were lightweight, cheap, and
easy to stack and ship. Unlike bottles, you didn’t have to pay a
deposit and then return the cans for a refund. By summer Krueger
was buying 180,000 cans a day from American Can, and other
breweries decid