Poll: Cans vs. Bottles (definitive preference)

Yes cans these days are coated, but sometimes the coating isn't done right and you end up with metallic beer. Happened with a Ten Fidy for me before.

You also failed to mention BPA which sadly all the cans (used for beer) currently use, there are alternatives (I looked up BPA free cans and apparently a company called Native Forest uses BPA free cans) but brewers would rather save a few cents a can than give us the best BPA free product. I don't know about any of you but I would be happy to pay an extra 10 cents a can to get BPA free. Until brewers realize this their cans will sit on the shelves as far as I'm concerned. If more of you would join me in demanding an end to BPA in cans brewers would either switch back to bottles or give us what we want.

 

I like the convenience of cans but usually only buy IPA's and pale ales in cans for close to immediate consumption. Interestingly, even though I'm sure the exposure is much less, there's also BPA in the pressure seal liners used to cap beer bottles.

 

I'm all for cans. The most important reason being that, since i can stack them i can fit twice as much beer in my fridge. Added bonuses, they don't let light in, easy transportation, and can take them more places.

 

Bottles are much more convenient for pouring unfiltered beers.

 

Physics and chemistry will still take over and the oxidization process will still occur, at a slower rate possibly with the nitrogen, also I have had a great deal of canned beers and have had many of them with a broken seal which made the beer taste awful

 

My opinion some hop forward beers are better canned than bottled (Sculpin for sure better canned than bottled), but primarily those are the only beers IMO that are better canned than bottled, for that reason bottles win for me because I can assuringly get any style of beer and know the bottle is not going to affect it
I like cellaring beers as well and cellaring a canned beer does not sound right to me, I just think after a year the beer will just taste like metal because the polymer layering could deteriorate
I also don't understand every one's I drink from a glass so I buy canned beers logic... I know I am young and may be missing something here, but wasn't the idea of the can to drink straight from the can and the bottle to be poured into a glass?
Bottles win for me because I suffer from Lupulin's threshold shift (damn this occurrence) so I have to vary the types of beers I drink, which bottles prevail in every other category IMO

 

I've also never heard of can conditioned beer, and I love Belgians.

 

I am very accustomed to the mild skunk on so many beers not just heineken. But to answer . . . yes, the can means no skunk to the nose. Skunk is a scent not a flavor. Heineken tastes a bit of green apple and a bit sweet to me but it's always a pleasure . A mostly clean lager that goes with every food except cake.

CNAS> Lighter, no light gets in and easier to recycle.

 

First result of a Google Image search, and someone even highlighted it:

 

Cans: lighter, easier to carry, less space, protects the beer better plus I am a sucker for drinking from cans.

Exception: sours and saisons should be in 75 cl. bottles. I have hope to never see a canned lambiek.

 

Contents are more important than container.

 

This shouldn't even be a discussion unless you are talking about drinking out of one or the other. Most of us will be pouring these into a glass. So keeping that in mind, there just isn't a comparison. A can protects the beer from O2 and light, and the can saves space. Bottles cannot do these things. I see the OP asked a very general question, so I suppose I cannot assume that he is talking about the preference in regards to pouring into a glass, but if he is talking about drinking out of one or the other, it would have to go to bottle, for one simple reason, smell is taste, and no matter how fresh that beer in the can is, if you smell the can, you will taste can. I vote for OP to clarify his question.

 

The only time I see bottles being preferable to cans is with wild/sour/funky beers. I have yet to see a beer brewed with wild yeast show up in a can and there must be a reason for that. I have no idea what the reason would be but, if The Bruery or Cascade's beers or beers infected with Brett started being put into cans, it just wouldn't seem right. Also, the only saisons I've ever had in a can (St. Feuillien, Sneak Attack) haven't been very good. I can't say whether or not it's the can's fault but, until I experience otherwise, it doesn't seem to be a proper vessel for the style. All other styles, on the other hand, I feel can and should be put in cans, especially IPAs.

The more I think about it though, it seems silly to think that canning is improper packaging for any beer, even wilds/sours because there are plenty of wilds/sours that are kegged and kegs are just jumbo cans in the end. I guess it's just a perception thing.

 

Maybe it's because such beers sell for so much money and there is still a perception that cans = cheap. In other words, top notch sour in a 750ml can get a $30 sticker that people willingly pay, but if it's in a four pack of cans with a plastic holder, people won't pay more than $20. I don't know, just guessing....

 

Unless the container can keep the contents fresher longer than the other container. Would you still buy Two-Hearted as often if Bell's switched to plastic bottles?

 

Sure but, if you're buying wilds/sours, you're probably more informed than the typical beer drinker and are aware of the benefits of cans vs. bottles. Knowing those benefits, to gladly pay top dollar for a Rodenbach on-tap which is coming from a metal container but then turning around and saying you'd never buy Rodenbach in a can seems hypocritical to me. What makes the keg so much different from the can?

 

Cans
Cans
Cans
Cans

 

Perhaps, but I don't think people make the connection with kegs just being large cans in the same fashion as you seem to.

 

Until the day when every beer is available in both bottles and cans, it really does not matter. I honestly have no preference, I buy beer based on the beer not its container. I won't argue advantages of one or the other but that rarely affects my decision.

If you still want to know about plastic containers, I have have beer from plastic growlers and damn good homebrews from reused pop bottles. If the plastic Two Hearted was fresher than the bottles or soon to be seen cans, I would certainly buy a plastic bottle.

 

Brewery Vivant has put a Wild Ale (Brett based) in cans with no ill effect. To this point, time has not been an issue either.