How much would you pay for a bottle of beer that stays cold for nearly an hour longer?

	John Beale, Post-Gazette The new aluminum bottle for Iron City beer. Click photo for larger image.

Pittsburgh Brewing Co., maker of Iron City Beer, is asking an additional $1 per case.

The brewery has entered a partnership with Pittsburgh-based Alcoa Inc., the world's largest aluminum maker, to produce aluminum bottles that keep beer colder for longer, Alcoa officials said.

Alcoa and Pittsburgh Brewing today were announcing that about 20,000 cases of the new aluminum bottle beer are being shipped out this week to many of the 28 states where Iron City is sold.

It's not the first time Alcoa has teamed up with the local brewery to put out a new product. In 1962, the two put the first pull-tab beer cans on shelves, freeing beer drinkers of the need to carry openers.

Whether the aluminum bottles catch on like the pull-tab cans remains to be seen, but brewery officials said they believe the market is there.

"The beer stays colder for longer so that is the big seller for baseball or football games or wherever you can't bring glass bottles," said Joe Piccirilli, vice chairman for Pittsburgh Brewing. "Other than that, they're just really cool looking."

Aluminum beer bottles have proven successful for a few breweries in Japan, but Iron City is the first company in North America to ship the bottles nationally, company officials said.

There is at least one microbrewery, based in Missoula, Mont., that has been using aluminum bottles.

Pittsburgh Brewing has no plans to drop glass bottles or cans of beer, Piccirilli said.

The new beer bottles will be available this week.