Go ahead and kick the can, but not around Marty Jones.

"Folks have a lot of myths about cans," says Jones, the "lead singer" -- publicist -- for the Oskar Blues Brewery in Lyons, Colo. The does-things-differently microbrewer has been creating a lot of buzz for packaging its craft beers in aluminum cans.

Then The New York Times named its Dale's Pale Ale the best American pale ale in a recent blind tasting of two dozen of them, in part because of its freshness -- something a delighted Oskar Blues claims is enhanced because cans block out all light and reduce oxidation.

Now the booming Boulder-area brewery is selling its beers in Western Pennsylvania, via Vecenie Distributor in Millvale -- part of a movement it bills as the "Canned Beer Apocalypse."

Some beer drinkers fear that cans impart metallic taste, but that's groundless, says "horseman" Jones, because the aluminum is lined with a polymer. Besides keeping beer more tasty, the packages are a bit cheaper than bottles, cheaper to ship because they're lighter, and more efficiently recycled, Jones argues, adding, "You can take great beer more easily to the great outdoors!"

Beer in cans is nothing new, of course -- the snap-top can was invented right here in 1963 by Alcoa and Pittsburgh Brewing Co. -- but craft beer almost always has come in bottles (Dale's was the only canned one in the Times tasting). Notable exceptions include the special cans of Fuller's London Pride that used to be available, and gratis, on Pittsburgh's British Air flights.

Still, to many, cans mean mass-market, less flavorful beers. Whereas a few craft brewers have canned their more accessible beers, Jones says, "We wanted to put a really, really big, assertive beer in a can to totally blow away misperceptions."

And so, in addition to the 6.5-percent-alcohol pale ale, they can their 8 percent Old Chub Scottish Style Ale. Cases (including a just-for-Pennsylvania one with a dozen of each variety) will retail at about $25.

The beers now are available in 10 states, but that's expanding fast: Oskar Blues' 2004 growth of 123 percent makes it one of the country's fastest-growing brewpubs.

In the wake of that success, more microbrewers are going into metal, a few of them into new aluminum bottles like those in which Pittsburgh Brewing is pushing its Iron City Beer.

Is this a paradigm shift? Does packaging matter for much more than marketing?

Oskar Blues founder Dale Katechis is proud to have helped open this can of, well, froth. He has a sense of humor about it, but isn't joking when he says, "America's beer drinkers have a right to the truth about canned beer."

For more information, visit www.oskarblues.com.