My understanding is also that canning lines can be a lot more compact than bottling lines, so cheaper/easier to install in a smaller brewery. For a while, I know there were a couple local breweries who essentially time-shared a canning line on the back of a truck that would just drive between the breweries and was cheaper than all of them buying it themselves.
>- They weigh less and are more compact than bottles
This is the real key one. My intel from a brewery that was sadly bought by Coke was that the savings in transit & shipping is staggering. More beverages in the same amount of space, which also means less costs for refrigeration.
- They block all light
- They’re better sealed than bottles
- They weigh less and are more compact than bottles
- They don’t break
- They’re more often recycled
The freshness reasons probably correlate with the rise of hazy IPAs, which are more sensitive to freshness than other styles.