Churchkey Can Company is a defunct

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of be ...

founded in 2012 by actor

Adrian Grenier Adrian Sean Grenier (born July 10, 1976) is an American actor, producer, director and musician. He is best known for his portrayal of Vincent Chase in the television series ''Entourage (American TV series), Entourage'' (2004–2011). He has appe ...

and former

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designer Justin Hawkins in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, USA. The brewery's name refers to its flagship

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

, which must be opened using a can piercer, or "

church key A church key or churchkey is an American term for various kinds of bottle openers and can openers. Etymology The term in the beverage-opening sense A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gath ...

Brewery history

Based in the

SoDo Sodo ( am, ሶዶ) or Wolaita Sodo ( am, ወላይታ ሶዶ) or ( Wolaytatto: ''Wolayta Sodo Ambbaa'') is a city in south-central Ethiopia. The administrative center of the Wolaita Zone. It has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation bet ...

neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, the brewery is the brainchild of Hawkins and Grenier, the latter being better known for starring in ''

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''. The pair met in 2010 in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, and the recipe for the beer was created by two local homebrewers. Unusual for a microbrewery, some of the funding for the company came from technology investors. In 2013, the company halted production due to quality issues caused by excessive pressure inside the cans. Production resumed in 2014 after a change to a more traditional 12-ounce aluminum, albeit still lacking the pop top.

Churchkey beer

The brewery's only beer is a

Pilsner Pilsner (also pilsener or simply pils) is a type of pale lager. It takes its name from the Bohemian city of Plzeň (german: Pilsen), where the world's first pale lager (now known as Pilsner Urquell) was produced in 1842 by Pilsner Urquell Brewe ...

-style

lager Lager () is beer which has been brewed and conditioned at low temperature. Lagers can be pale, amber, or dark. Pale lager is the most widely consumed and commercially available style of beer. The term "lager" comes from the German for "storage" ...

with 29

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and 4.9 percent

ABV Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as ABV, abv, or alc/vol) is a standard measure of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a volume percent). It is defined as the number of millilitres (mL) o ...

. It is packaged in a 12-ounce steel can made by

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that is designed to be recyclable, as is the churchkey that is included with purchasing a six-pack. the beer is only available in the

and

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

metropolitan areas and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. From their introduction in the 1930s up until the 1960s, most beer cans were made of steel and had a flat top into which one needed to punch one or two holes with a can piercer, euphemistically called a "

churchkey A church key or churchkey is an American term for various kinds of bottle openers and can openers. Etymology The term in the beverage-opening sense is apparently not an old one; Merriam-Webster finds written attestation only since the 195 ...

". With the advent of the " pop-top" aluminum can, this type of beverage can has disappeared almost entirely. The reception for Churchkey's

retro style Retro style is imitative or consciously derivative of lifestyles, trends, or art forms from history, including in music, modes, fashions, or attitudes. In popular culture, the "nostalgia cycle" is typically for the two decades that begin 20–30 ...

can has not been entirely positive, with some beer enthusiasts dubbing it "the most hipster beer in the world".

References

External links

* Manufacturing companies based in Seattle American companies established in 2012 {{Beer-stub

Brewery history

Churchkey beer

See also

References

External links