Normally, when a local brewery releases a new beer in cans, it has to be pretty special for me to consider it Bites-worthy. But when I saw that Tennessee Brew Works had announced that they were coming out with a new Imperial IPA in cans, my eyebrows leaped toward my hairline. You see, after almost a decade of operation, this is the very first time that they have released a beer in a packaging format other than bottles or kegs.
I asked Tennessee Brew Works founder Christian Spears about the change in philosophy. “It’s unusual for a brewery to go this long without canning,” he explains. “We’ve got a lot of business in the downtown bars, and they’re very bottle-heavy because it’s quicker for the bartenders. But we’re also the official beer of Tennessee State Parks, so we’ve been having discussions about our carbon footprint, and it’s important to mitigate waste. Bottles are tough to recycle in Tennessee, and while technically you’re not supposed to have alcohol in state parks, it does make sense to have your beer in the most travel-accommodative packaging.”
Spears also was waiting for technology to catch up in the canning process. In the past, brewers worried that the seams in cans would allow oxygen to get inside the package, which affects quality. Spears explains, “We’re experiencing tremendously low dissolved oxygen levels in our new packaging, and that determines shelf life. We’ve seen minimal degradation. This tech gives us great quality assurance.”
Even after deciding to pull the trigger on the new canning line, it was a slow process. “It took over a year for the equipment to arrive, and it just stuck in the ports at both Hamburg and Charleston,” bemoans Spears. The line which TBW chose comes from Leibinger, the German company that had originally installed the brewery’s first bottling line. After traveling to Europe to see the new technology, Spears chose a system that could be swapped in and out of his current line, stitching from bottling to canning in less than an hour.
“Our plan is to keep bottling our beers for downtown and eventually convert everything else to cans,” says Spears. This also involved redesigning all their packaging, maintaining the main graphic elements created by neighbor and acclaimed artist Bryce McCloud, but employing in-house staff to convert the layouts for cans.
Using both preprinted cans and blanks with graphic wraps, TBW will have flexibility for long or short runs. “The preprinted cans were another big investment. You have to order them by the truckload, and that’s 204,250 cans. I’m going to be looking for more warehouse space soon, because we ordered five truckloads!” shares Spears.
So which beer has the honor of being Tennessee Brew Works’ first canned offering? Spears knew he wanted it to be something special, so he leaned on his master brewer for inspiration. “Matt Simpson is an incredible IPA brewer, and he’s been brewing since 1994. It’s still the most popular style,” Spears explains. “When the laws changed to allow higher ABV levels, we came out with 1927, a double IPA at 7.6% alcohol. We came up with the idea of an Imperial IPA. We usually test out small batches of the beer in our taproom, but in this case, we decided to just go for it. You could say that this beer was born in Matt’s brain!”
By style standards, Imperial IPAs can go as high as 10.6% ABV, and the new Secret City Imperial IPA clocks in at a “burly” 10.0%. “It’s not a nouveau hazy IPA and not quite a West Coast style,” explains Spears. “Our brewing system allows us to create what I call a brighter wort with a more noticeable hops profile and very little extraction loss from the grain and the hops.”
The hops contribute evergreen notes plus tropical fruits which lead to a crisp, dry finish. The beer’s name comes from a historical reference to the atomic bomb research that took place in Oak Ridge, nicknamed “Secret City” due to the sensitive work happening in the labs. A radiation warning symbol is prominent on the can label, and Spears even inquired into printing glow-in-the-dark labels. When I point out that the light comes on when you open the refrigerator, he chuckles, “Yeah, that’s a joke that only we would have gotten.”
Secret City Imperial IPA is available on draft in the Tennessee Brew Works taproom currently, along with a small quantity of 4-packs of 16-ounce cans. The first wide release is in East Tennessee, because of Oak Ridge, but Spears expects wider distribution soon. Although he does have a small warning: “This is the kind of beer where you’ll drink half a can and let somebody else drive home. At 10%, it’s basically a 16-ounce bottle of wine. Be responsible when you drink it!”
