Craft beer in cans celebrated in Scottsdale, 5/16

Looking to broaden your brew horizons?

At the AmeriCan Canned Craft Beer Festival in Scottsdale this weekend, makers and distributors will be pouring more than 300 local and national brands, about a quarter of which are not sold in Arizona stores.

For example, Cigar City Brewing of Tampa will bring Jai Alai, Maduro, Invasion, Florida Cracker and Tocobaga beers, which you can't find in the Grand Canyon State.

The festival, in its fifth year, will include live music, food for sale, a VIP tent, a beer-science garden and beer games, said Jen Pruett, the festival's spokeswoman.

Two Tone Lizard Kings, Dry River Yacht Club, Catfish Mustache and DJ Slippe will provide the tunes. Eats will be provided by such restaurants as Brat Haus, Honey Bear's BBQ, Craft 64, Angel's Trumpet and Arizona BBQ Club.

Two new features this year are the Bell's Brewing Stadium lounge and the Crafty Bastards Chill Zone, where visitors can relax and cool off.

"There's no festival like this that has this array of breweries around the country that are showing the canned craft beer, except the Great American Beer Festival in Denver," said Chip Mulala, "minister of craft beer" for SanTan Brewing Co., which organized the festival.

"We're literally putting on a festival that brings beer from the four corners of the country."

SanTan Brewing makes a Southwest-style ale designed for drinking in hot, dry climates. It's fully fermented during the brewing process, which gives the ale a dry, clean taste, Mulala said.

The Chandler brewery came up with the idea for the festival to spread the word that canned beer is as good as bottled, Mulala said. Canned beer developed a stigma because drinkers thought beer in bottles tasted better, but advocates say aluminum does a better job of keeping out light, which can degrade taste.

A national canned craft-beer revolution started in about 2002, and SanTan jumped into the fray in 2007, Mulala said.

Today, he said, 500 American breweries make canned beer, up from fewer than 100 in 2007.

AmeriCan Canned Craft Beer Fest

When: Noon-6 p.m. Saturday, May 16.

Where: Scottsdale Civic Center Mall, 3939 N. Drinkwater Blvd.

Admission: For age 21 or older only. $35 in advance; $45 at the door. Includes 20 samples and a souvenir sampling can. $100 for VIP, includes 20 samples and souvenir can, as well as exclusive samples, a beer garden, snacks and private restroom.

Details: cannedcraftbeerfest.com.