The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 1935–1945
Krueger's canned beer of 1935 freed beer from the bottle's deposit cycle
American Can and Krueger shipped the first canned beer in 1935; cans needed no deposit, stacked easily and chilled fast, remaking beer distribution.
Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company · American Can Company
the move
For decades beer travelled in returnable glass bottles, which meant deposits, breakage and heavy returns. American Can had tried canning beer in 1909 and failed; after Prohibition it returned with a pressurised can whose coating stopped the beer reacting with tin.
Newark's Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company took the gamble, shipping 2,000 cans to Richmond, Virginia on 24 January 1935. A 91 percent approval rating from drinkers convinced Krueger to scale up; within three months more than 80 percent of its distributors handled canned beer.
The can's economics were the point: no deposit to collect, easier stacking, more durable and quicker to chill. By the end of 1935, 37 breweries had followed and over 200 million cans had been produced, and wartime shipments of canned beer to troops cemented the format.
why it works
- No deposit meant no return logistics at all.
- Cans stacked and chilled faster, simplifying retail handling.
- Cans weighed less, cutting freight cost per drink.
- The 91% trial result gave Krueger confidence to commit.
what transfers
A package that eliminates a whole handling step — returning bottles — can reshape an industry's distribution and let small brewers compete nationally.
what came after
Canned beer's share kept growing and national brewers used it to ship across the country, consolidating the industry after the war. Today cans account for about 60 percent of the US beer market, and craft brewers cite light and oxygen protection as reasons to can.
references
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