Lyons brewer thrives on can-do attitude: Dale's Pale Ale is world's first canned microbrew.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: Attitude at Altitude - Beer industry

HORDES OF TOURISTS DRIVE THROUGH LYONS, EN ROUTE FROM Boulder to Rocky Mountain National Park, and don't even bother to slow down.

Yet their drive-by misses something the microbrewery industry missed until 2002: distinctive beer in a can.

The whole thing started when Dale Katechis, founder of Lyons-based Oskar Blues Brewery, responded to a "junk fax" in 2002. The fax was from Canadian firm Cask Brewing Systems, hocking a $10,000 canning device that would allow a microbrewery to affordably can beer.

"It seemed like one of those lower-your-mortgage-rate faxes," said Katechis, an avid mountain biker well aware of the superiority of cans on the trail.

After joking about it for months, Katechis bought the Cask gizmo, launching the world's first craft beer in a can.

Distributing Dale's Pale Ale in five states, Oskar Blues is on track to brew 3,000 barrels in 2004, up from 650 in 2001. Beyond outdoor buffs, concert-goers and sports fans are sizable market segments (music and sporting venues often ban glass) as is the airline industry (Frontier carries Dale's on all of its flights).

In March, Celebrator Beer News, a microbrew trade magazine, anointed Dale's Pale Ale "Top Industry Story of the Year." Marty Jones, Oskar Blues' head of publicity (and well-known Denver rockabilly musician), said the canned strategy's "four horsemen" are Katechis, Brewmaster Steve Schott, Director of Sales Wayne Anderson and himself.

Jones noted that bottling microbrew arose out of necessity, not aesthetics, because canning is much more expensive than bottling, and small brewers couldn't afford the canning process.

But over time, the market came to associate bottles with quality microbrews and cans...