90 years ago, on January 24, 1935, beer was canned for the first time. Things have really changed since then, from flat tops and church keys to craft beers with labels that double as stickers. Idaho’s beer world has evolved, too. There’s nearly 100 active craft beer breweries in the state and 22 in the Treasure Valley. If you’ve been out in Boise, you know we love our local breweries.

To celebrate this historical day in beer drinking, we went out to Eagle to visit Joe Prin. Joe has an extensive and carefully crafted breweriana collection, likely the largest in the state. But before we explore Joe’s world, let’s start at the beginning of the beer can.

Joe Prin holds the first canned beer. Photo by Arianna Kharizz.

Beer can beginnings

Canning companies existed long before beers were canned. They were canning fruits, vegetables, and other things of that nature, but just couldn’t make it work with beer. It was a can company, the American Can Company, that first designed a workable beer can in 1933; they just needed a brewer who was willing to try something different.

“It wasn’t easy to convince brewers to do this. To can beer,” said Joe. “One thing that's very important to any brewery is the quality of their product. They don't like taking chances. So up until 1935 everything was available in kegs, on draft.”

The first brewery to can beer was Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company in Richmond, Virginia. They didn’t have much to lose because American Can had offered to install the machinery for free. Soon enough, 2,000 Krueger beers were distributed in cans and public reception was positive. Pabst Blue Ribbon picked up on the idea and we’ve been drinking beer out of cans ever since.

One of the first beer cans from Krueger Brewing Company. Photo by Arianna Kharizz.

Can evolution

The beer can has seen four main evolutions from that first Krueger can to where we are today. The first is the flat top, the most basic of the beer cans. It’s probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a vintage can. What you may not think of is the church key.

“Nobody knew what to do with them, so there were instructions: hook the opener under the rim, lift the opener firmly all the way. The instructions were really common on all the beer cans that came out before WWII,” said Joe, turning over the can in his hand.

Instructions on how to open a Pabst can. Photo by Arianna Kharizz.

Though flat tops were more widespread, and church keys more common than bottle openers, others smaller brewers still wanted in on the beer can fun. Later in 1935, a brewer in Wisconsin came out with the cone top, which became popular amongst small shops that could fill these cans on their existing bottling lines. For beer drinkers, this was the era of inconvenience. It’s either a church key or a bottle opener. Pick your poison.

A cone top can. Photo by Arianna Kharizz.

This went on for a number of years until Pittsburgh Brewing Company introduced the Iron City Beer in 1963. The best part? It came with a built-in opener, also known as a pop top or pull tab. No more carrying around a clunky metal opener. By 1975, about 75% of beer cans produced came with a pull tab.

Iron City Beer, a pull tab or snap top can. Photo by Arianna Kharizz.

“Now, you've listened to music that talks about those pull tabs. You've heard the song by Jimmy Buffett. He said, blew up my flip flop, stepped on a pop top, cut my heel, and had to cruise on back home. Wasted away again…” Joe laughs.

Margaritaville. Classic.

“He was talking about that because the pop top, the pull tab, created an environmental disaster. People would pull these things open and just throw them.”

A line of pull tabs. Photo by Arianna Kharizz.

This brings us to our final evolution of the beer can: the stay tab. It took about 10 years of litter for manufacturers to realize it would be smarter to create a tab that stayed in place. Falls City Brewing Company in Louisville, KT was the first to connect tabs to cans in 1978 and we’ve been here since. Today, virtually all carbonated beverages are marketed with stay tabs. Pull tabs were officially outlawed in 1978.

Finding can-munity

BCCA's Magazine. Photo by Arianna Kharizz.

“The cans are really just a conduit of friendship between all these people. We get together at these shows where there's hundreds of tables put together and you're pawing through it and showing off your latest acquisitions and telling stories," Joe said.

Joe's collection wouldn't be what it is without the Brewery Collectibles Club of America, or BCCA. He currently serves as editor for their magazine and has found some of his lifelong friends through trading beer cans with other members.

BCCA Magazines. Photo by Arianna Kharizz.

Joe’s can collection

One thing to note about Joe, it’s much easier to get him to talk about beer than himself. He’s passionate for all the right reasons, and it’s been this way since he was 14. This hobby was popular in the 70s, even the kids were into it, and beer can companies capitalized on that.

“The beer probably sucked, but we wanted the cans, and so that was a big deal for a while,” said Joe.

Joe started collecting cans as a teen growing up in Colorado by scouring landslide areas in the mountains and other places where people might toss old cans. By the time he went to college he had built up a solid collection, which he eventually sold to make rent. He kept two cans he really liked: a Coors can and Becker's Best can.

Joe points to cans in his impressive collection. Photo by Arianna Kharizz.

After graduating college, he got married and transferred to Boise to work at Boise Cascade. “Luckily, I didn't have all these cans to bring with me,” he said, jokingly.

He still kept in touch with some of the guys he knew from his collecting days and got a call from an old friend one day. Coors had come out with this legendary series in support of the Pro Rodeo, only being sold in Idaho and Arizona. Before Joe knew it, he was trading sets of the Pro Rodeo cans for other limited edition sets that had come out in other states. “And off it went again,” said Joe.

Joe in front of the Coors section of his collection. Photo by Arianna Kharizz.

Joe’s collection is housed in an old pole barn that has been converted into a four-car garage. In his current set-up, his collection takes up one-and-a-half of the garage bays. The first room is a bit larger, showcasing Idaho beers, older cans, and his beloved Coors cans. The other is primarily pull tabs, a TV, a few neon signs, and what Joe calls “smalls” which are smaller collective items like coasters, mini cans, and a Super Bowl ring.

One room in Joe's collection. Photo by Arianna Kharizz.

There’s also a few rather large books and a stack of magazines. United States Beer Cans vol. 1, United States Beer Cans vol. 2, so on and so forth.

“So this [book] came out 24 years ago, and since then, there's been 1000's and 1000's of other cans that, once the book came out, people said, well, I've got some stuff that's not in here. And so they're keeping track of all that. And that database is now up to over, like 50,000 more cans.”

The book is huge. He flips open to a picture of a can and then points to the same one on the wall nearby.

United States Beer Cans book. Photo by Arianna Kharizz.

Joe’s can collection follows a guideline of oldest to newest in alphabetical order to keep it all organized. Starting with brand, followed by beer name, followed by type. This allows us to see evolution of the cans over time, some companies having rather drastic changes in shapes, labels, and packaging. Others not so much.

Another section of Joe's beer can collection. Photo by Arianna Kharizz.

He’s pretty certain he has the largest beer can collection in Idaho. “I have the quantity,” he clarifies. “Steve down in Idaho Falls, he's got the quality. He doesn't have this many cans, but what he has is really, really good stuff.”

Currently, he has around 10,000 cans. But Joe’s love for the hobby extends further than just the cans. What's on the inside counts, too, you know?

“My favorite is a real good Porter, not too thick, but a darker beer. I like the porters. I like them when it's hot outside. I like the pilsners and the lighter lagers. In the spring time, the Bock beer is real good, and I like the ambers. So probably Porter, Amber, a good Scottish Ale, Pilsner, lagers. Maybe a blonde ale. There's so many. Just like there's, you know, 18,000 different religions in the world. There's probably that many kinds of beer out there."

Joe's Idaho Canned Beer Archive. Photo by Arianna Kharizz.

"I really enjoyed this one that just came out this Christmas, which was a seasonal offering from Grand Teton, out of Victor, Idaho, red IPA. It had a little bit of a spicy taste to it, that was really good. Gosh, anything that Bert's Brewing has put out has been phenomenal. They do a great job with the quality of their product."

"I think that diversity and inclusion is important in a lot of things in life, including my beer. I know people that say, ‘Nope, I’ve drunk Pabst Blue Ribbon since the day I came out of the womb. And I'm gonna do it until I'm ashes and an urn.’ That's all they will drink. That's fine. That's like listening to the same song, though, over and over, all day, all your life. I want some variety. I'm going to listen to everything.” said Joe.

The Idaho canned beer archive

Joe holds a Joe IPA from 10 Barrel Brewing. Photo by Arianna Kharizz.

Joe maintains what he calls The Idaho Canned Beer Archive. This archive includes every canned beer that has been produced in Idaho (to Joe’s knowledge).

“I somewhat obsessively track Instagram and Facebook for the breweries. When they say, hey, we just came out with this new beer or something, or they take a picture of it, or I see somebody in a picture drinking a new beer, and I don't have that can... I gotta go find it.”

That may mean a trip to Sandpoint or Coeur d'Alene. Joe doesn’t mind. It’s an excuse to take a road trip with his wife, Vicki, and visit a few breweries in different parts of the state.

He pulls up a list of albums on his phone where he manages his findings from every brewery in Idaho, as well as a few screenshots of beers he hopes to get his hands on one day. That’s the tricky part about this hobby; people tend to like the product more than its packaging.

"Only thing that I'm currently going after voraciously is everything from Idaho. You know, if a new one comes out, until I get it, it drives me nuts," said Joe. "You can really get into the weeds with this stuff."