Aluminum can tariffs are making it harder for small breweries to keep beer affordable. Tariffs on steel and aluminum doubled from 25% to 50% in the last year, WAFF 48 reported Oct. 27. Brewers in Huntsville, Alabama, told the station that drinkers are paying for the can as much as the beer.
How aluminum can tariffs hit one Huntsville brewery
More than half the beer at Straight to Ale leaves in aluminum cans, with the rest in reusable steel kegs. Its cans are made in Texas, but experts told WAFF that tariffs still push domestic prices up.
Owner Bruce Weddendorf said can prices doubled during COVID and never came back down. He told WAFF he hasn’t seen a direct tariff hike, but high prices forced the brewery to switch suppliers and buy in bulk.
“For smaller breweries, that’s actually a difficult thing to do because we have to plan further ahead,” Weddendorf said. “We also have a greater risk because we have more inventory, which is never good. You have to carry that cost.”
Why 2027 contracts could lock in aluminum can tariffs
Glenn Richey, a supply chain management professor at Auburn University, told WAFF that small businesses have fewer ways to defend against price swings. “Larger manufacturers often have more purchasing power and greater access to hedging and financing,” he said.
Richey said buying American-made cans doesn’t protect local brewers because tariffs lift domestic aluminum prices too. He expects contracts renewing in 2027 to bake today’s higher costs, including aluminum can tariffs, into prices, and said prices won’t fall until the U.S. makes more aluminum.
Aluminum can tariffs also have a new shape this year. The Brewers Association said in April that a restructured tariff schedule keeps sheet aluminum and finished cans at the 50% rate, while moving aluminum lids to 25%.
San Diego brewers on record
San Diego brewers have talked about aluminum can tariffs before, but these quotes are older than the WAFF report. In March, Karl Strauss COO Chad Heath told Axios San Diego that the brewery’s cost of goods is up 40-45% since 2020, citing costs that include tariffs on imports like aluminum cans. “It’s death by a thousand paper cuts,” he said. In June 2025, Societe Brewing’s Teddy Gowan told NBC 7 that costs had risen 3-5% after the 25% tariff, before the jump to 50%.
The Bureau has tracked this fight before, including the Beer Institute pushing back on aluminum tariffs. Weddendorf’s ask is simple: “If people would just make the choices to drink local beer, that would be the best thing people could do to help support us.”
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