The new West Sixth Christmas Ale can.
Lexington, KY – West Sixth Brewing is prepping to release 2,500 six-packs of a new Christmas Ale, its first foray into canning limited edition beers.
The year-and-a-half old brewery has found itself limited in what it was able to distribute in cans as they have to be ordered by the truckload, which is around 200,000 cans.
When the company first started, it paid a premium to order a half truck, a supply the founders sold much faster than they anticipated.
Now West Sixth is using blank cans for the Christmas Ale and for future “fun smaller batches,” according to West Sixth co-founder Ben Self.
“We’ve produced this can by attaching a shrink wrap around a blank aluminum can. This wrap allows us to produce a limited number of cans in any design,” co-founder Joe Kuosman stated in a release. “And the best part is that it is still recyclable.”
In fact the Christmas Ale will urge the consumers of the 15,000 cans to “Give our planet a Christmas present” by recycling the can. As has been the case with the cans for West Sixth’s IPA and Amber beers, the label for the new seasonal brew was designed by Cricket Press, a printmaker that has a studio adjacent to the brewery.
The Christmas Ale, a dark spiced ale, will be released starting the week after Thanksgiving. It will be sold at West Sixth’s taproom beginning at 3pm on December 2nd, and then in several retail locations throughout Lexington and the rest of the state.
The beer will be the first Christmas Ale brewed and distributed by a Kentucky brewery, West Sixth stated in its release.