Yikes, There’s A Beer Can Shortage In Maine

The horror of it all.

Various breweries across Maine are reporting a beer can shortage, and are resorting to various other ways of canning their product including sharing orders with their competitors.

The Portland Press Herald tells us that the Aluminum Association of Washington, D.C. (wow, there's an exciting field to be in) reports that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, beer lovers are spending more time at home and out of the bars, and want an easy way to store their suds.  Thus less kegs are needed and more cans of beer are being purchased.

The Aluminum Association of Washington, D.C (there's that shiny and sleek organization again) also passes along that beer can producers are already operating at "full capacity" and have no easy way to quickly "step it up."

Another reason why you may be drinking Bud Lite from bottles soon is that there still is somewhat of a groovy tariff war on with our Canadian neighbors where a lot of the metal comes from that is used in producing beer cans, according to the Brewers Association (can you imagine what their Christmas party is like).  Our totally straight and sober, cheeseburger and fries loving President recently reimposed a 10% tariff on the metal from Canada.

So some local breweries here in Maine are splitting beer can orders with their competitors when they're fortunate enough to score one (it's the Maine thing to do), and they're also using "mobile canning" companies (betcha didn't know that they existed) as well.