That first sharp crack of an open can releasing its promising hiss, the tip up to your totally 21-year-old lips, the wet, cold liquid coursing down your — actually, eww, this tastes like aluminum. For many beer fans, that’s a common experience, causing some discerning consumers to seek the loving arms of glass bottles. Now the oft-besmirched can is attempting to make a comeback with a plethora of newly designed vessels.

If glass bottles are so pretty and beloved by the masses, why do we have cans in the first place? Cans are better at sealing out oxygen and blocking light from entering, which makes for a longer, fresher shelf life. But they don’t have the best reputation among beer aficionados.

To that end, AdAge says champions of the can tout new technology that not only makes canned beer taste better (and not like wet socks left under my brother’s hockey pads), smell delicious and go down easier in comparison to those old cans.

Things like “vented” cans and “extended lips” — which sounds super sassy — are either in the works or already out there trying to shine up the cans’ image.

Sam Adams is preparing its “Sam can,” a container with an extended lip and hourglass ridge at the top that is designed to enhance the smell and expel all that pent up carbonation. In a gesture of beer can community solidarity, the brewer is sharing the design without imposing any royalty or license fees.

But now more brewers are getting in on the special can game: Bud Light is testing a can with a vent under the tab that reduces “glug,” long the favorite sound adjective for many a glugger; Miller Lite has punch top cans that can be opened in a second spot with “house keys” or “golf tees for what we can only imagine is a round of shot-gunning beers and Coors Light has a new can with a double-vented wide mouth.

This is all well and good, but…

Previously:  Budweiser Worked Really Hard On New Bow Tie Can Since Other Shapes Are Way Uncool

Cans Make a Comeback For Beer Marketers Large And Small [AdAge]

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