It can be done

Now they can be one and the same.

Canned beer often tastes like canned vegetables: well- preserved but a little off. So most people who enjoy good beer plant their lips on glass. Not so fast -- lo and behold, the second coming of cans has begun!

Other breweries have done it before -- the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Co.'s iconic Krueger Cream Ale in 1935 and the Maui Brewing Co.'s six-packs of cans currently available throughout the islands -- but none of these craft varieties made it north. We only had our own Urban Wilderness Pale Ale from Sleeping Lady Brewing Co.

The founders of 21st Amendment Brewing noticed this lapse of logic and decided to make Alaska one of two test markets for its craft canned beer (the second region being its home turf in San Francisco).

One of the owners, Shaun O’Sullivan, remembers collecting cans from the road as a kid and later developing a collection of hundreds of beer cans, now stored in boxes recently sent to him by his parents (with a sigh of relief, no doubt). He became a fan of the can a few years ago.

"It's unfair that big macros have held onto this package for so long when there are so many good things about (cans)," he said. "Light can't penetrate it and oxidize the beer. The seals don't leak. The whole outdoor element is important in terms of portability."

He's absolutely right. It's way more fun humping up a mountain with a full bottle of beer than hauling the empty one back down. With cans, you just squash them and go.

After shooting them, of course.

Just take that "green" angle a step further, O’Sullivan said, because cans require less energy to make than glass and get recycled at a higher rate. Technology has even done away with all those nostalgic "tinny" flavors as well.

Nowadays, the "bad" part of bad canned beer has nothing to do with the can. "Bad beer is bad beer," he said. "The can is just a package."

As packages go, 21st Amendment's beers look lively and to the point. The brewery rolled out its beloved package in two styles, Hell or High Watermelon Wheat and Brew Free! or Die IPA, neither of which holds back on flavor.

"When you give someone the IPA, they're taken aback for a second," O’Sullivan said. "You don't expect that kind of flavor out of a can -- all that malt and bitterness and hoppiness and alcohol."

But it doesn't take long to get used to it.

As for the watermelon wheat, well, let's just say you don't want to drop it from a high building to see it splatter. Quirky flavors make it impossible to dismiss this beer as fluff beer. Instead, expect a full brew with an undeniably piquant finish.

O’Sullivan and his partner, Nico Freccia, identified Alaska as an obvious market after visiting a few of our winter beer festivals, where they befriended like-minded beer fans such as John Burket from Odom Corp., the distributor for the beer.

Burket said the watermelon wheat will cost about $8.99 a six-pack, with the IPA going for a bit more. Look for both styles in the craft beer area of all major liquor stores and several restaurants and pubs.

Honestly, I can see only one downside to cans: You have to cough a lot louder when you open one at the opera, but at least you won't have to carry around a bottle opener.

Alaska State Fair

The Alaska State Fair arrives with a bounty of funnel cakes, turkey legs and stomach-churning rides as well as tonic worth its weight in cotton candy: Alaskan Witbier, Alaskan Amber, Alaskan IPA, Glacier Brewhouse IPA, Glacier Brewhouse Amber and old standards like Black Butte Porter and Stella Artois.

Look for all of these for sale at the Sluice Box on the fairgrounds.

Also, for the first time, the fair's hosting a wine bar in the Craftsman House. Sample tasty wines from 2 to 10 p.m. on weekdays, noon to 10 p.m. on the weekends.

For more info, visit www.alaskastatefair.org/2008/entertainment/venues/craftmanshouse.

? Find Daily News reporter Dawnell Smith at adn.com/contact/dsmith or call 257-4587.

---

Constitutional flavor

The 21st Amendment ended Prohibition in 1933 and made beer legal again for Americans. It's also a brewery, bar and restaurant in San Francisco. For more information, visit www.21st-amendment.com.