The first can of beer

January 24, 1935 –

The Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company of New Jersey introduced the first canned beer, Krueger Cream Ale. The new, three-piece steel and tin cans containing this drink had no pull tab; they were opened by a special kind of tool called a church key.

This new method of packaging beer was an instant success and other breweries quickly followed as they noted that the new cans were more cost effective, easier to handle and took up less space than bottles.