These days, good beer in cans is not an unusual thing.
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Used to be, it was only mainstream beers that came in tinnies but now it’s pretty easy to find something tasty in a 330ml or 375ml can.
Cans have become so popular that some craft beer breweries are using super-sized ones.
Modus Operandi Brewing on Sydney’s Northern Beaches is an example.
Go to their brewery bar and they’ll fill up a 946ml can with whichever of their tap beers you want.
And then with the help of the evocatively named “Canimal” machine, they’ll seal up the top with a lid just like a smaller tinny.
More recently Modus has launched a series of beers in shiny aluminium 500ml cans.
Hot on their heels is The Rocks Brewing Company, who have moved beyond sending their beers out in short and long-neck bottles and introduced 500ml cans.
At least they look like a 500ml can – I couldn’t see anywhere on the label that gives the measurement.
They’ve put two varieties in cans so far – an IPA and a white IPA – both of which are available in Wollongong at Crown West Cellars.
The cans have been filled by hand from the taps at the breweries and then sealed.
To emphasize the hands-on approach, the labels include a canning date written in texta.
The straight IPA is nice and fruity with a strong level of bitterness but it was the white IPA which won me over.
I’d initially expected it to be a mix of an IPA and a wheat beer and so the funky flavours were initially a surprise.
Then I read the label more closely and found it was a mix of an IPA and a Belgian beer. And thus the funkiness made total sense.
And it’s a nice blend of the two styles, with the Belgian flavours perhaps just trumping the piney IPA characters.
It’s so good I’ve already bought several cans. But at 7.6 per cent, I’m not likely to drink them all in one night.
Glen Humphries is the 2016 AIBA Australian Beer Writer of the Year.