Ah, the pleasures of a cold beer after a day’s cragging: the can soothing your throbbing mitts, the brew slaking your thirst. . . . But a conundrum: many fine ales come only in heavy, shatter-prone glass bottles, less than ideal for portage. So it was with gusto that I “tested” the new, canned incarnation of a favorite, the NEW BELGIUM BREWING COMPANY FAT TIRE AMBER ALE ($15 for a 12-pack, newbelgium.com). This can-conditioned Fat Tire has a rich, complex flavor that paired well with the smell of high-mountain pines, and after draining the can, I flattened it into an aluminum pancake for maximum pack-outability.