Sainsburys launches BrewDog Punk IPA in cans

Sainsbury’s has launched BrewDog’s flagship beer, Punk IPA, in cans. The 330ml cans will be listed exclusively by the supermarket for one year, alongside the brand’s 5AM Saint amber ale and 9.2% abv HardcoreIPA.

Scotland’s largest independent brewery marked the launch with a "crap beer amnesty", which will allow beer fans to swap a can of branded lager for a Punk IPA.

The swap will be made at BrewDog’s Aberdeen bar on Friday 18 March, and the brewer is currently looking for partners to host amnesties in other cities across the UK.

The cans of lager will be “recycled” by BrewDog co-founders James Watt and Martin Dickie, who will use a golf club from the top of a Brewdog van to drive them into a recycling plant.

“Punk IPA has been our most successful beer so far, and the launch of Punk in cans is a landmark moment for the insurgency of craft beer in the UK. Crap beer’s days are numbered,” said Watt.

“We want the public to realise that the fizzy, yellow, so-called ‘beers’ pushed on the unsuspecting public by big breweries should be treated as a crime,” Watt added.

Punk IPA is currently the only craft beer available in cans in the UK.

Lucy Shaw, 14.03.2011