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On this day in 1935…beer is sold in a can
On 24 January 1935 the Gottfried Krueger Company became the first brewery to sell beer in a can.
Two thousand cans of Gottfried Krueger’s “Finest Beer” and “Cream Ale” were delivered to Richmond, Virginia and with a 91% approval rating the brewery decided to continue the practice.
As reported by History, the first attempt at canned beer was in 1909 but the American Can Company which was behind the innovation had to suspend its experiments when Prohibition was brought in.
When Prohibition was lifted in 1933 the company went straight back to the drawing board and developed a pressurised can.
Krueger was the first brewery to accept the new packaging and within three months 80% of distributors in the US were handling its beers.
As it ate into the market share of the big brewers such as Anheuser-Busch, they hit back and by the end of 1935 over 200 million cans of beer had been sold.
Canned beers now account for half of the US beer industry’s $200bn turnover.