(Bend, OR) – Deschutes Brewery received label approval this week for 12 oz. cans of Mirror Pond Pale Ale. Deschutes Digital Marketing Manager, Jason Randles, tells BeerPulse that the hope is to get 12-packs of cans out into the market this summer but that it is not yet definite. No other beers are planned for cans in 2013.

The process of considering a third-party facility for Mirror Pond Pale Ale cans began a little over a year ago, says Randles. They selected Cold Spring in Minnesota, which also cans beers for 21st Amendment and other brewers. Randles isn’t certain whether the partnership is a traditional contract or an alternating proprietorship but re-iterated that they won’t release Mirror Pond in cans until it as at the same standard as the beer produced in Bend. A few months ago, they started sending a brewer over to Cold Spring to start dialing in the beer there and that process is still ongoing.

There could be a canning line in Deschutes’ future though that is undetermined as of now and would be “years down the road.”

According to the Symphony IRI Group, sales of craft beer cans jumped 168% up to $32.6 million in supermarkets last year. The number of craft brewers selling cans in supermarkets will soon pass 100.

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale 12-packs of 12 oz. cans became the top new craft package with $5.2 million in sales and already ranks #1 among cans. That isn’t going unnoticed by brewers like Deschutes and The Boston Beer Company which recently announced the forthcoming release of Samuel Adams Boston Lager and Summer Ale cans.

Deschutes was the #5 craft brewer with 252,000 barrels produced in 2012. Eight of the top ten brewers either can or have announced plans to do so with Lagunitas and Stone being the lone holdouts.