A celebration of beer can design, innovation and the rising popularity of non-alcoholic beer is the focus of an exhibit in Tasmania.
The “Chainsaw Lager” exhibition is on display at bruny NORTH, an art gallery on the northern tip of Bruny Island, south of Hobart.
Running until 4 May, 2025, the collection will feature a selection of cans from a personal archive of almost 6000 kept by local figure Justin “Chainsaw” Jones.
Jones has been adding to his beer can tally for almost 40 years and is a member of the Australian Beer Can Collectors Association.
There are beers from all over the world as part of the collection with Russian and German brews that will be displayed alongside smaller brewers and craft beers from Tasmania and interstate.
The collection also includes Australian steel beer cans from the mid-20th century, which was an era marked by technological change according to curator, Virginia Dowzer.
“These cans reflect a time when packaging wasn’t just functional, but a canvas for brand identity and national culture,” Dowzer said.
“The introduction of steel cans to the Australian market in the 1950s and ’60s transformed the way beer was stored, transported, and consumed.
“Often requiring a church key opener (before the advent of pull tabs in the late ’60s), these early cans were built to withstand pressure and handling, and their durability, combined with vibrant branding, makes them highly sought after today.”
Originally housed in a shed constructed by his father in 1985, the collection now resides in dedicated storage on Jones’s property, a purpose-built space where each can is catalogued, stored and displayed with care.
The bruny NORTH exhibit is also doubling as a creative challenge for local craft brewers to produce a non-alcoholic lager to bear the Chainsaw Lager label.
Submissions will be judged by a panel of beer industry experts and Jones himself.
The entries will be scored across five key criteria: appearance, aroma, taste, drinkability and freshness.