A six-pack of new Colorado canned beers you should try this summer

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There's something about the crack of a can of beer being opened that says summer: The sound is loud, proud and promises refreshment. In the past, that crack was reserved for cans of mass-market beers, but now there are dozens of choices available from Colorado's favorite craft breweries.

Here are some new ones -- all released within the past six months -- that will make summer last longer.

Deviant Dale's
Oskar Blues, Longmont
Sixteen ounces
Born in the twisted depths of the Oskar Blues brewery, Deviant Dale's IPA first burst forth out of Boulder County in January 2011, when it was featured at Old Chicago restaurants for three weeks. It has since become the first beer that Oskar Blues poured into sixteen-ounce cans. Chewing on one of these bad boys is like chewing on a hop vine.

Hoppy Boy
Twisted Pine, Boulder
Sixteen ounces
Grassy citrus notes characterize Hoppy Boy, one of Twisted Pine's flagship beers -- and the first the Boulder brewery has put into a can. Marketed as Tall Hoppy Cans -- or THC -- by Twisted Pine, the brewery should be cranking these out all summer on its new canning line from Wild Goose Engineering.

Shift Pale Lager
New Belgium Brewing, Fort Collins
Sixteen ounces
New Belgium rolled out its massive marketing machine for Shift, a light beer designed specifically to be packaged in sixteen-ounce tallboys and on the brewery's brand-new, multimillion-dollar canning lane. Shift is named after the New Belgium's policy of allowing employees a free beer after each shift.