The package that is most popular with craft-beer drinkers, especially those who frequent and support smaller breweries, often poses a logistical problem for brewers. Cans—no matter whether they are 12-ounce, 16-ounce, or some other size—require storage space and are expensive, no matter whether they are preprinted or later outfitted with paper labels.
Many can manufacturers, such as the Ball Corporation, require that when breweries purchase cans, they do so in specific quantities, often 100,000 or more at a time. For breweries that produce only a few hundred or thousand barrels of beer per year, it can be a struggle to fill all those cans in a reasonable time or impractical to order so many for just one beer when today’s consumers require variety.
A growing number of intrepid brewers have found a workaround, ordering one “generic” printed can for the brewery and finding ways to alert customers as to what’s inside.