Night Shift ‘Awake’ Cans Hit Shelves Next Week, and More Aluminum Is Coming

Night Shift ‘Awake,’ Photo provided via Facebook

As the temperatures drop to a more seasonable mid-50s this weekend, reminding you that it’s November and all you really want to do is curl up on your couch with a robust porter or stout, Night Shift has your back.

The Everett brewery has just released 16-ounce cans of Awake, an American porter aged with Counter Culture Coffee. Four-packs are available this weekend at the brewery, and they will hit local shelves next week.

And if you’re the type who reaches for a coffee-tinged brew in any weather (pro tip: it makes an excellent brunch drink), make sure to acquaint yourself with this new brew: It joins pale ale Whirlpool and India pale ale Santilli as the brewery’s year-round canned offerings.

“Awake has a totally different profile than Whirlpool and Santilli,” Night Shift cofounder Michael Oxton said. “It gives us some diversity in the can format. It’s one of those beers we want to move quickly and we want people to drink fresh. That coffee flavor is going to taste best as soon as the beer gets packaged,” he said.

That’s the same reason why the hop-forward flagships are canned: Oxton said he believes cans encourage drinking the beer fresh. Since its release about two months ago, Night Shift has bottled Awake in a 750-ml. format, but and the 16-ounce four-packs will completely replace glass for this brew.

Cans have transcended the blue-and-silver, 12-ounce stereotype. “There’s a huge demand for cans right now,” Oxton said. “We’re only able to supply about 20 percent of our retail stores with cans, because the demand is so high.”

And so, Night Shift is increasing its capacity (and the space to enjoy it on-site, but that’s another story). The brewery received two, 60-barrel fermenters today, and an additional fermenter and brite tank are on their way in the next two months, Oxton said. The new equipment will help them produce 60 percent more beer than what is currently possible by early 2016.

“We’re going to move a few more beers into cans as we move forward,” he said.

The 87, Night Shift’s double IPA, is next in line for early December. Sixteen-ounce cans of the rotating IPA series Morph will follow in early 2016, too. Night Shift introduced that beer in 12-ounce cans earlier this year, but cut back on its production to focus on developing their flagship offerings. Now, they have fully embraced the pint cans.

“If you’re going to sit down and crack a can, it’s less effort to have a full 16 ounces,” Oxton said. “Also, I think it looks cool.”

Awake, 6.6% ABV, 16-ounce 4-packs $14 at Night Shift Brewery, 87 Santilli Hwy., Everett; 617-294-4233 or nightshiftbrewing.com.