The first beer cans in Australia were made of steel and had to be opened with a ‘church key’ – an implement that punched a triangular hole in each side of the lid. Cans initially had opening instructions printed on the lids. Carlton & United Breweries claim that VB (Victoria Bitter) was the first Australian beer to be released in a can. In 2011, they launched a replica of their 1958 VB can using the original artwork.
Strangely, canned beer was first introduced during the Prohibition era in the USA (1920 to 1933). The American Can Company invented the world’s first beer cans and the first beer to be distributed in cans was Krueger’s Special Beer, a 3.5% lager, which was the strongest beer that was allowed under an early 1933 law that preceded the final repeal of Prohibition. Their first brew was canned in December 1933.
The South Australian Brewing Company started canning West End XXX Bitter, West End Stout, Southwark Bitter and Adelaide Light, with Coopers starting soon after with their Sparkling Ale, Best Extra Stout and Light Dinner Ale.
The next development, in 1969, was the ring-pull can, first used by the Swan Brewery in Perth. The ring pull avoided the need for a can opener but created a litter problem that was only solved with the pop-top that arrived in the mid-1970s. In 1970, Boags in Tasmania was the first Australian producer to introduce lightweight aluminium cans.
In 2025, the proportion of beer sold in cans rather than bottles was growing, according to the Australian CEO of Asahi Beverages. She told the Financial Review that beer in cans had grown from 46 per cent of packaged beer sales to more than 50 per cent over the previous three years, saying the trend was partly driven by craft beer and the greater affordability of cans due to their generally smaller size.