Beer History Storyline
Packaging, Dispense, and the Beer Supply Chain
Trace the containers, closures, transport systems, refrigeration, and dispense technologies that changed how beer reaches the drinker.
Chronological milestones
Sources and further references are available on each individual event page.
1750s
Giant Wooden Porter Vats Transform Industrial Brewing
October 31, 1797
Joseph Bramah Patents a Beer Engine
October 17, 1814
The London Beer Flood
1821
Rodenbach Brewery Is Founded in Roeselare
1864
The 3 Fonteinen Tradition Begins in Beersel
1876
Louis Pasteur Publishes Studies on Beer
February 2, 1892
William Painter Patents the Crown Cork
1900
Cantillon Is Founded in Brussels
1903
Michael Owens Develops the Automatic Bottle-Making Machine
September 29, 1908
Leopold Nathan and Hans Bolze Patent an Enclosed Brewing System
January 24, 1935
The First Commercial Canned Beers Go On Sale
1937
Sander Hansen Develops an Automated Tunnel Pasteurizer
October 26, 1937
Richard T. Cornelius Patents A High-Pressure Beer Dispensing Device
January 1959
Coors Introduces an All-Aluminum Beer Can
1959
Michael Edward Ash’s Nitrogen System Creates Guinness Draught
1962
Iron City Beer Test-Markets the Self-Opening Snap-Top Can
March 15, 1963
Guinness Fills Its Last Wooden Beer Cask
March 1965
Asahi Installs Large Outdoor Fermentation and Lagering Tanks
1968
Rainier Develops the Unitank for Fermentation and Maturation
1992
Krones Builds Its First Sterile Beer Filler
November 2002
Oskar Blues Cans Dale’s Pale Ale
2012
KeyKeg Introduces the One-Way Bag-in-Keg System