What's with the 19.2 oz can?

If you have been in a bottleshop lately, you have almost certainly seen an abundance of 19.2 oz cans of craft beer. It’s like the craft beer equivalent of the 40 oz bottle. Sounds like more bang for your buck.

Why 19.2 oz? Because 19.2 US fluid oz cans are equal to .999 imperial pint. America can’t seem to get any sort of measurement right, but at least breweries seem to be trying to provide the consumer with more options. Many of these cans, such as Stone IPA, Founders All Day, Green Flash Remix, Deschutes Fresh Squeezed/Fresh Haze, Lagunitas 12th of Never/Sumpin’ Easy/IPA, Dogfish Head Seaquench, and more typically retail for no more than $2.99. If they are even cheaper and are $1.99 for 19.2 oz, you are getting more beer for your dollar. The $2.99 19.2 oz cans are a little more expensive volume-wise when compared to the same beer in a 6 pack of 12 oz cans, but you also get the benefit of not committing to a 6 pack.
 
If you are reading this and you like to go fishing like I do, there’s a good chance you want to take some craft beer with you for the trip. Enter the beer can. Cans can go many places that bottles can’t (or shouldn’t). I like to bring a cooler with me for my beer, and when I finish a beer I crush the can and throw it back in the cooler. Can’t do that with a bottle. Instead the bottle takes up just as much space as before, and weighs significantly more than a can as well. These same ideas apply to hiking, camping, going to the beach, etc. When it comes to these newfangled 19.2 oz cans, if you take two of them it’s about the same as packing three 12 oz cans (19.2*2=38.4 oz, 12*3=36 oz). In my opinion that’s advantage to the consumer. On that note, who wants to drink a single 12 oz can? The serving size of the larger can seems more appealing, and the cost difference is pretty small. Anything priced higher than $1.99 means the brewery is probably going to pull a larger profit on 19.2 oz cans than the 12 oz can, when compared oz to oz. Also, the brewery can package 19.2 oz cans and use a little more material per can, but only one top per can. For the earlier example of two 19.2 oz cans and three 12 oz cans providing a similar amount of volume, the brewery only needs to buy two lids as opposed to three. Less material purchased means less resources used, less money spent, etc… I think that’s called a win-win situation.
 
Some random calculations below….
 
19.2 oz cans
-transported in 2-12 or 24 packs
-19.2x12=230.4 oz per 12pack (1/2 case)
-230.4x2=460.8 oz per 24pack (1 case)
 
12 oz cans
-12x24=288oz 24pack (1 case)