Steam Whistle is rolling out a five-litre keg format as the weather gets warmer and summer beer season gets set to arrive.

“The ‘Party Keg’ had to fit into our family of SKUs available to ensure it could be recognized on the shelf and maintain our hero Whistle icon,” says Bromlyn Bethune, the company’s chief growth officer. That’s why, Bethune tells strategy, the brewery is still calling out the equivalent number of cans per keg (14, in case you were wondering). It also wanted to direct consumers via QR code linking to a how-to video outlining simple steps for pouring best practices from the keg.

The first batch of Steam Whistle Mini Kegs is being rolled out to Greater Toronto Area LCBO stores now, and are already available in Quebec at select grocery and convenience stores. Broader national distribution is planned in other provinces throughout this month, with Newfoundland & Labrador scheduled for June.

“We are already seeing our super fans and long-time Steam Whistle drinkers gravitating to this new format,” Bethune says.

The Party Keg is of a size that it acts as its own in-store display. Outside of retail, it is being promoted with seeding across Canada with influencers and social spending within its “momentum markets” and regions where a five-litre format would be welcomed for gatherings. The team is also using its organic strategy all season, encouraging user generated content with “#SWPartyKeg” and re-posting the best shots for a chance to win a summer prize pack.

At Steam Whistle, Bethune says it continues to develop all branded assets, marketing strategies and design with its in-house team.

“We are using the Klear platform for product seeding,” Bethune explains. “We do use iStorm for search spends [and] we hired BellwetherX.com to help us with the how-to-pour video.”