Harveys cans

Putting beer in cans has opened up a whole new market for Harveys, in Lewes, East Sussex, one of Britain’s oldest breweries.

Harveys turned to cans earlier than it planned to after being asked to supply beer for the British Airways i360, a 450ft high viewing pod, in Brighton last year.

“They were unable to dispense draught beer and there was a restriction on glass bottles, so we decided to put our Best Bitter into a can.

“With our new branding on the cans it created a whole new market for us, with a younger demographic clearly attracted to our beer, some of whom told us they would never have tried it if they’d only come across it in cask.”

The positive response convinced Harveys to launch a range of beer in cans. Best Bitter is joined by Gold Bier (4% ABV), Malt Brown (4.8%) and the newest addition to the line-up, Black Stout (4.8%), a traditional stout porter.

Bob said: “We believe cans give us the opportunity to engage with a demographic and a route to market that would not have considered us as solely a cask ale producer.

“We’ve had interest from companies that supply cruise ships and airlines, and we’re also talking to restaurants and hotels. These are all conversations we couldn’t have had with cask ale.”

Drinkers get their first chance to try Harvey’s newest beer, Black Stout, at Craft Beer Rising this week where it will be on offer alongside the brewery’s other new beers in both can and keg.

It’s described as having undertones of coffee and chocolate and a balanced, bittersweet flavour from a combination of light and dark malts together with traditional British hops.