Royal Society of Chemistry extends invitation to celebrate Party Seven

A Party Seven beer can is required by the Royal Society of Chemistry. And they want it unopened.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the seven-pint receptacle’s arrival and the 75th anniversary of the beer can, the organisation is chronicling the scientific advances that led mankind from beer bottle to beer can. Memories and examples of the role that the Party Seven played in British society are sought, and the results will be displayed on its website.



The response has been a torrent of stories fizzing out of the can of collective memory: tales of ruined purple flares, of broken toes, of cans passed around on darkening streets and a bitter that soon went flat and tasted of iron filings. The first beer cans, produced in Virginia 75 years ago this month, were the shape of polish cans — which was rather off-putting. Party Seven cans were a slight improvement.

Nick Mullen, who worked at Metal Box, described them as “almost impossible to open. You needed a screwdriver and a hammer. And then it was like Mount Vesuvius. But it was the standard product that you brought to a party”. The cans disappeared in the 1980s.