Tuesday

Canned Crap an American Tradition - Happy Birthday Canned Beer



We love it.  We just love it.  We pretend to hate it, but we love it.  Especially Brooklyn douchery culture:  "oh I'll just have a PBR, because I'm on a shoe-string budget . . . just look at my $196 skinny jeans."  They're so EVERYTHING ELSE!  But back to topic:

75 years ago yesterday, a New Jersey brewing company sold the first canned beer, and ever since Americans have had a love affair with watery beers in toss-away tin.  But check this out - not everybody does it that way!  I KNOW!


When I was living in Germany in the 90s, the small group of Americans in my residence house found out the hard way that chug and chuck was not the norm.  We went down to the getraenkemarkt and bought a case of beer that looked like this:

Neat, huh?  The CASE IS REUSABLE the bottles are REUSABLE -- not recyclable, they are washed and reused.  Godammit, that just makes sense, no?  You pay a deposit for both the crate and the bottles, and you get it back when you RETURN them to the store.

We didn't get that the first go-round, and we PITCHED the bottles and made the crate into a bookshelf.  That flew for about fourteen seconds.  Residents began knocking on our door before the beer had dried in the bottom of the pristine garbage room out front.  They were kind but firm and clear.  You don't throw away glass bottles, you recycle at the very least.  And we were idiots to give up the hefty return on the deposit (about half the cost of the case).

Idiots?  Why do we have that image wherever we go?  I wonder.

Anyway, happy birthday canned beer.  Let's all go to our bars and ask them if the even RECYCLE here.  I bet you'll find out they don't.  Every can and bottle goes to landfill.  That's how it's been in every bar I've worked in. . .  any suggestions?



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