Oskar Blues will pour Dale's Pale Ale into sixteen-ounce tallboys next year

Colorado. You're gonna need a bigger coozie. Oskar Blues, the Colorado company that kicked off the craft-beer-in-a-can revolution in 2002, will celebrate a decade of unconventional packaging next year by pouring its flagship brew, Dales's Pale Ale, into sixteen-ounce tallboys for the first time. The Longmont-based brewery is currently awaiting the delivery of a canning machine from German firm KHS, which will allow it not only to fill sixteen-ounce cans, but also to double the number of twelve-ounce cans it can fill per minute. Oskar Blues spokesman Chad Melis says he doesn't have exact plans for which beers it will put into tallboys, but adds that Dale's would be the obvious first choice.

And Oskar Blues won't be alone. New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins is also adding a massive new canning line from KHS and plans to start canning sixteen-ounce beers next year. Although brewery spokesman Bryan Simpson wouldn't say which beers will go into the new cans, Fat Tire, Sunshine Wheat and Ranger IPA are good guesses since the brewery is already canning those in twelve-ounce containers.

Several craft breweries across the country have been packaging in tallboys for a while, but in Colorado, Dolores River Brewing became the first to use the package at the beginning of 2011. Its beers are only distributed in the southwestern part of the state.

Eddyline Brewing in Buena Vista is about to begin canning tallboys of its Crank Yanker IPA as well, and hopes to distribute to Denver.