Will 12 oz bottles soon be obsolete?

Nope.

 

In favour of full sized bottles? I hope so.

 

I like both bottles and cans. But I don't think bottles will go away. That is crazy to think of. That being said, I like when breweries both can and bottle their lineup. At the end of the day, I feel bottles and cans both have their perks. Which is why I think it's smart for a brewery to do both. Like Ballast Point, Founders, Stillwater, Revolution, Half Acre, Bells (Two Hearted), and Evil Twin.

Also, I don't know if this is false, but I heard a while back on this very site that Russian River is going to start canning Pliny the Elder. i think that would be amazing. But hoax, not sure.

 

Cans peaked as a percentage of the national package mix in the US brewing industry in 1991 at 60%. Since they it was steadily down until the mid-2000s when it started to climb back to 2012's 53.2% (Beer Institute's Brewers Almanac 2013). Given that the beer can has been around for over 75 years now, it's unlikely it will soon make the 12 oz. bottle "obsolete". Note, too, that the throw-away bottle has increased its share of the mix since the 1990s - from about 1/4 to over 1/3 - in part, because of the virtual disappearance of the returnable/refillable bottle.

In the post-Repeal US brewing industry that has not happened. The 12 oz. bottle has remained the predominant bottle and is even used as a standard measure of beer (particularly in the middle wholesale tier) - a case/case equivalent equaling 2.25 gallons - 24 bottles X 12 ounces.

West Coast brewers did use 11 oz. (and 15 oz.) bottles and cans for a time in the 1930s-60s, but, except for their nostalgic usage by Full Sail for their Session line's stubby bottle, they are obsolete and never spread beyond the west coast.

Which US brewers are doing that? Many imports come in 11.2 oz. bottles, which are the equivalent of their standard metric size beer bottle of 330 ml. and those are obviously used so the brewer can use the same bottle and bottling line for their domestic market and exports to both the "metric" countries and the US. Imports coming in their domestic ~11 oz. bottles has also been going on since before Prohibition.

 

I think that since so many costumers prefer bottles over cans means that they will be around for a very long time still. We still have brewers using green or even clear bottles.

 

I think (and hope) bottles and cans will exist harmoniously. I need the bottles for homebrew! As a side story I was in a local store the other day and a 12 pack of cans was $3 MORE than the same 12 pack in bottles. I imagine it was just the hype of having an old beer offered in the new format.

 

I'm a total sucker for stubbies, so much so that I've tried Red Stripe @ least a half dozen times hoping for a better result, no dice! Love that Genny brought the stubb back, Full Sail & North Peak too...
I do like cans but I can't see 12oz going away completely.

 

Tony Magee said in his book that "his brewery would be the last one to use cans". I think bottles will be around for the rest of most of our lives.

 

I love cans but I don't see bottles ever going away. There may be more new breweries that only can their product, but I doubt breweries who bottle will make the switch entirely.

 

Until you can make a canning line that costs under a thousand dollars that you and your buddies can cobble together with bits from home depot and the home brew shop. Nope. Cans will be making serious inroads as the costs continue to come down on canning lines that make sense to smaller breweries with limited resources and space. But, I don't think so.
I'll use a reference from a brewery that was bought by Green Flash about cost of operations.
The cost for minimum orders of cans and a case of lids is going to be pretty effing sobering when you think that a 1500$ piece of equipment you need to replace on brewside is too much to afford right now.

 

Yup, and then a couple breweries will try the Ben & Jerry's approach, "Still a pint!"..or in this case "Still 12 ounces!" printed in bold on the label.

 

100 years ago brewers realized that brown bottles were the best container for beer. Love cans, but brown bottles are best.

 

Yes. Yes it will.

 

I really hope not, especially as high abv becomes more prevalent.

 

If bottles become extinct I'll be able to use my bottle cap collection as my beer fund and spend each cap like it's a dollar coin. Woo Hoo! WGACA.

 

will be more cans, but bottles will persist.

 

The amount of cans on shelves has increased dramatically just over the past year here in DFW. Most of them are local, so I'm not so sure that's a common trend among other states. I like having plenty of canned options for outdoor activities and such.

 

Pilsner Urquell just switched from 12 oz bottles to 11.2 when they moved from green to brown bottles.

 

A full transition to cans would be bad for homebrewers, but good for people who get assaulted in barrooms.

 

But when you buy Pilsner Urquell in cans, you get 500 ml., or 0.9 oz more than a US pint can, so you're ahead of the game by 1/10 of an ounce.