Back in the late seventies, when I was a young teen, my friends and I had one stellar beer can collection. My friend’s father even designed a wall rack in their basement to hold the hundred or so colorful beer cans. Our collection included such classics as Olde Frothingslosh, Billy Beer, Burgermeister, and Iron City.
Eventually, we went off to college and beer cans fell out of style, but thanks to the craft beer revolution, cans have made an impressive and colorful comeback. Now, with the publication of Canned! Artwork of the Modern American Beer Can by Russ Phillips, it’s safe to say there is nothing short of an American Beer Can Renaissance.
Craft beer lovers know that today’s cans are constructed with an interior lining that ensures the beer tastes great, so while purists can now claim canned beer is better for the drinker’s palate, this beautiful coffee table book proves cans also provide a better artist’s palette.
It’s only fitting that the foreword is written by Dale Katechis of Oskar Blues Brewery, the brewery credited with being the early pioneer in the canned resurgence. Based in Colorado, Oskar Blues realized there was a market for outdoorsmen who wanted to “pack in, pack out” craft beer when hiking, camping or mountain biking in the wilderness. Dale’s photo shows him sitting on his mountain bike holding a canned beer.
The canned artwork throughout is colorful, funny and often often represents the brewery’s local region. There are a few cans with depictions of beautiful women, but there also a few breweries who appear to be fixated on monkeys. Some designs are basic, or retro, while others are truly psychedelic in nature. Each beer can photo is accompanied by descriptions of the design.
Canned! is broken up in regions, starting with New England. My favorite here is Gandhi-Bot, New England Brewing’s India Pale Ale, inspired by India’s greatest leader and the fact that robots and cans are both metallic. The Philadelphia region is represented well, with photos from Pottstown’s Sly Fox Brewery and Delaware’s Twin Lakes Brewing Company’s beer cans included. While I’ve sampled several of the beers displayed in the book, there are many represented that are new to me, a testament to the growing popularity of regional brewers.
Representing Michigan, Keweenaw Brewing Company’s Pick Axe Blonde Ale features a blonde woman carrying a pick axe. But she’s not quite as dangerous looking as the woman on their Widow Maker Black Ale can. Adorned in red dress, she is holding an actual “widowmaker,” which according to the book was “another name for a pneumatic drill that was used for mining in the late 1800s.”
Wild Onion Brewing Company’s contribution to the book includes a “Day of the Dead” psychedelic sketch of a skeleton riding in a 57 Ranchero. The celebratory drawing also features the number 420, which for the uninitiated is marijuana lingo.
If you have the type of father who is happy with a case of quality craft beer for Father’s Day, Canned! is the perfect topping that will surprise and delight him. A collectible book that can be displayed on the coffee table, in his office or as the centerpiece of his man cave, the photos are definitely a conversation starter, and the book may inspire him to start a new beer can collection.
Canned! Artwork of the Modern American Beer Can is available from Amazon.
