We've said it before, and we'll say it again: Cans are the best package for beer. Easier to ship and recycle, faster to cool, better at protecting the beer from sunlight and oxygen, shotgun-friendly — the upsides abound. Also numerous are the reasons we selected AmeriCAN as this year's best fest. The beer, of course, is a big one, with our city's best canned brews touching aluminum with stuff not available in our state any other time, like offerings from Sixpoint Brewery out of New York, 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco, and Florida's Cigar City Brewing Co. This year's venue — the open and shade-providing Scottsdale Civic Center — is another. Even the people pouring the beers, usually volunteers uneducated on their products, were improved, as the festival sponsors at SanTan Brewing Co. decided to recruit members of the Arizona Society of Homebrewers and the beer geek community at large.