Ok, I know I posted about this around 12 months ago. But it seems this is actually going to happen! Panama based Scottish Spirits is actually going to be importing these things into the US markets. At a very reasonable cost of $5 per can! These are 12 fl oz cans, so for $5 you get 8 shots! Helluva deal!
So at $5 a can, there is opportunity and terror that I see. My previous article discussed the terror in good detail, but there is opportunity here too. Opportunity for scotch whiskey to make a real push into the spirits market! To date if you paid less than $20 for a bottle of scotch whisky you were getting rotgut! By all accounts this whisky is not too bad. That is hardly a ringing endorsement, but whatya want for $5?
Here’s a thought you can use this for mixing drinks and at parties. Or they make these things called bottles. You could get one, and put the remainder in it. I know, wild idea! I wonder if this takes off if it might make the prices of scotch come down a bit too. That wouldn’t be a bad thing in my mind. I don’t think they can justify the prices they charge now anyway, not when you can get a really great bottle of bourbon for $25 and the nearest Scotch that would compare is more like $45. This may infuse a little reality into the market. So what are your thoughts? Are you ready for Whiskey in a can? Better yet, would you be ready for whiskey in a can if it were only $5?
-Don
Beer & Whiskey Brothers 
No and HELL NO !!!
Just sayin’…. 🙂
While I trust the lining of beer cans to be relatively safe, I just can’t imagine a lining withstanding really high proof alcohol over a long period of time without something giving way, either the lining or the flavor. Nor can I imagine putting away 12oz of scotch at a sitting (cans ain’t too resealable, last time I checked)…
Well bottles are. just save an old Aunt Jemima bottle and use that! 😉
Mmmmmmm, maple flavored scotch. Hey, you might be on to something! 😉
Hey if they can make a Bacon Maple Beer (although badly) then why not scotch?
My biggest concern is that cans will make it a lot easier to teens to pack for outings and for dumb-shits to smuggle into games, concerts and races.
Easier than a flask?
Yeah Don–easier than a flask–and I’m assuming that they come in sixers, each w/ its own little turtle-strangler? I can guarantee that some of those same dumb-shits are gonna feel duty-bound to finish off a can (or 2?) at one sitting once they’re open. Why don’t we just market pre-filled syringes of pure-grain in handy 20 or 40-packs–it’d save a lot of muss and fuss. Make no mistake. this is an open invitation to abuse, a truly bad idea, with no upside!
WOOOOO! Let’s shotgun some scotch., WHERE’S MY FUNNEL?!?!?!
You may want to slow down there a bit. If a 180 pound man drank this whole can in an hour, it would put his BA level between .18 and .22. Very inebriated!
That was my gist. Seems to weird to me to buy hard liquor in a 12 oz. can.
I’ll stick with my Lagavulin in it’s original container, thank you very much. But yeah, under “Concerns”, idiots trying to drink 12oz of hard liquor in a sitting would definitely rank up at the top.
Do you really think it is the vessel that makes for poor decisions? I think people are more than capable of making bad decisions on their own. I’m not sure this would force the issue, but I could be wrong.
As far as it being harmful to younger folks, I don’t really see too many youngsters going wild on shots of Scotch. There’s a reason the Vodka market is so huge. It’s a neutral spirit that can mix with just about anything, i.e. boys and girls will drink it and get f’ed up. Plus, it’s usually pretty cheap unless you go for the nonsense that is premium vodka. While this canned whisky is cheap, I can’t see it taking off.
And you think that the makers of Vodka, Rum and other popular liquors aren’t watching how this pans out? You guys gotta stop thinking about these things from your own, responsible drinking perspective. The folks I’m talking about aren’t thinking, they’re responding to the market hype and peer pressure. Its almost like selling Uzi’s at the corner candy store.
Good points Wayne. I’m just wondering why the can makes such a difference.
Here are a few reasons I can think of right off the top:
1) You can recap a bottle,
2) cans are lighter and more portable than bottles (you and Jim often make this argument in re beer),
3) bottles of scotch don’t come in sixers,
4) think of the image of beer in a can–you and Calagione have made this point before–and thus the SFB demographic that cans are most likely to be targeted to and welcomed by.
First “shotgun” incident sending a minor to the ER will pretty much kill this idea. And yes, it will happen.
You could do a Scotch bong as it is now. It isn’t limited to the vessel the product comes in, just by the size of your funnel.
I love scotch. Scotch. Scotch. Scotch.
Maybe you can be the “Shotgun” incident Beercommdood was talking about? Amirite?
I don’t think you can shotgun Scotch, wouldn’t it need to be carbonated or under pressure in some way?
I’ve never shotgunned a beer, so I am unfamiliar with all the physics behind it. Maybe you are correct Ryan.
Guess I’ll have to buy a case of the stuff and find out?
While I think the carbonation aids in the ‘shotgun effect’, I don’t think it’s necessary, it’s more of an air pressure thing.
Speaking from experience in my idiotic youth, I agree with everyone that it’s just a matter of time with the over abuse. Just like the mountain climbing adage “I climbed it because it was there” teens and early twenty-somethings will be hyped and ready to shotgun this, just because they can. And as others have said, the ability to drink it straight out of the easily portable can will hammer some schmoe who’s used to drinking beer out of a can.
Don, I think what people are trying to make you understand is that the can, by its very nature, is a receptacle that is ASSOCIATED with a certain mode of consumption, which is “to drink straight from the can,” often at a rapid pace.
It doesn’t matter what you put in the can. If you put scotch in a can, people are going to try and drink it out of the can. Even people who wouldn’t pick up a bottle of scotch and start chugging it will give it a go if it’s in a can. Because that’s what we do with cans—or more accurately, what THEY do with cans.
As everyone has been saying, it’ll happen.
I think beer from a can tastes metallic, in no way do I want that flavor introduced to my Scotch. Then again, it’s $5 dollar scotch, so maybe that’s the flavor they’re going for? Where’s my Laphroaig?
Has any one noticed that the one can says its a “Single Grain Scotch Whisky” vice a single malt? Can’t recall seeing that one before. Is there some significance to that description?
Could be a stealthy way of saying “We just meant that it’s entirely barley.”
If you’re arguing about alcohol abuse based on containment vessel, please vacate Earth immediately and take up permanent residence on Mars. You must be the same people who were for the ban of 4 Loko.
Substances don’t abuse people, people abuse substances. You can’t legislate good decision making.
“Substances don’t abuse people, people abuse substances. You can’t legislate good decision making.”
Well said.
However I’m opposed to the canned Scotch. The idea is simply repulsive, like grocery store sushi or skim milk mozzarella. Some lines should not be crossed.
I think its awesome. Don’t see anything wrong with it, only upside. Kids can buy four locos or a bottle of admiral nelsons any time of the day and sneak either into where ever. 12oz canned liquor is no more ridiculous than a 40oz horse pee. I can’t see it coming in a six pack however. $30 dollar sixer of canned scotch? Doubt those would be flying off the shelves to anyone. $5 can, hell I’ll try anything once
These will probably appeal most to the same folks who buy the small flask size bottles of whisky
already, which is a good thing because it means less broken glass litter outside.