Cheers to National Beer Can Appreciation Day which will be celebrated on January 24 at our Kansas City Brewery! But why do we celebrate the humble can that day?
Before prohibition, there was a neighborhood Kansas City brewery literally on every corner. Rochester’s namesake brewery was one of these local purveyors of fresh beer, located right up the street from our current location. Most beer lovers enjoyed draft or keg beer in these beer halls. And while bottled beer was available for home consumption, bottles had to be returned, they were expensive and heavy to transport, and they were breakable.
But there weren’t many choices when it came to packaging beer. Its chemical makeup reacted with metal and it had to be pressurized to retain its fizz. All that changed when the American Can Company found a solution with an experimental canning process, new design and materials. Working with Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company in New Jersey, cans began rolling off the line in 1933 and were commercially available on January 24, 1935.
Cans were inexpensive, lighter to ship, easier to stack, unbreakable and didn’t require a deposit or return. Canned beers popularity soared and innovations like the self-opening can followed in the 60s. Pull-tabs were replaced with today’s punch tab in the mid 1970s to address littering concerns, but the beer can has remained largely unchanged since then.
New Canning Equipment at Our Kansas City Brewery
And while beer has been canned for close to a century now, Rochester only recently began larger scale canning with the addition of a Wild Goose Gosling 2.0 canner to our Kansas City brewery. Before that, we canned our beer by hand with a two-head filler, a time-consuming process that yielded one can every two minutes. With the new equipment, we can run 6-8 cans per minute. Current production also includes a nitrogen doser, which gives us the ability to can non-carbonated beverages like our cold brew coffee and lemonade.
Our beer cooler selection rotates often, so check it out the next time you visit and take home a mixed four-pack. Pop it open, and take a moment to enjoy the piece of brewing history you hold in your hand.
**SPECIAL OFFER TO CELEBRATE: BUY 3, GET 1 FREE ON CANS TO GO THROUGH JANUARY 31, 2025**
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Rochester Brewing and Roasting is Kansas City’s first craft beer brewery and coffee roastery under one roof. We’ve created welcoming spaces to gather for the best of both worlds – a Kansas City brewery and Kansas City coffee shop – all in one place. Our head coffee roaster sources the best quality coffee beans, roasting each batch meticulously to bring out the coffee’s unique character. Our head brewer blends the art and science behind brewing beer to create a rotating slate of beer styles, focusing on tradition with an eye on innovation at our Kansas City brewery. You can find local KC coffee beans for sale here, and our current beer tap list online.
We would love to see you in person to pour you a cold one or whip up one of our popular specialty coffees. We also have a rotating menu of delicious sandwiches, breakfast burritos and fresh-made-in-house pastries and donuts. Stop by our spacious Kansas City brewery and coffee shop, located in the city’s vibrant Crossroads Art District. Or check out our charming Parkville coffee shop and brewery, located inside two vintage train cars. We also host public and private events at the Crossroads location ~ details on our spacious Kansas City event space can be found on our website. Both locations are open day and night, so come early for the coffee, stay late for the beer!