Bottles becoming passé?

I prefer 12oz cans for drinkability and stacking. I’d take a 16oz cab over a bottle if the price point was the same which it’s often not.

 

I almost always buy cans because supposedly, cans keep beer fresher, recycling, and the beer I want, local craft, typically comes in a can these days.
Cheers!

 

I've seen an influx of ciders and NA beers that I haven't seen before. Ciders? I haven't really grasped the appeal of them so far. NAs? I am surprised that they actually appeal to me. Looking at Athletic...

 

glass v. can is of little importance to me. Both have qualities, but god, please don't abandon the 12oz format.

 

I think the Brewers Association claimed that the can only topped the bottle in 2020, so lots of bottle usage left. In the pre-craft era, cans started outselling bottles (combined, both returnables and throw-aways) back in the early 1970s.

What? No 7 oz. nip/pony/split bottles (either the longneck/export or that Goebel/Rolling Rock (name?) style)? No ½ gallon picnics?

A few other brewers used the same clear "Select" (aka "Champagne") style refillable bottle that Miller used for High Life (Krueger coming out of Cranston is the one I recall best, but I think C. Schmidt & Sons used it for a short-lived "super-premium" brand - "Classic" or something - circa 1980s) and a number of other brewers used those green exports, mostly for ales (Yuengling's Chesterfield Ale the longest-lived). There were also green and clear steinies and clear 12 oz. exports.

There were 12 oz. Stubbies in the mid-West and East Coast but, oddly, they were T/A's and that fact was often part of the brewer's promotion of them, in fact, they won with "the women" (well, at least Piel Bros. said so.)

 

Disappointed to see the format of the bottle disappear for cans. Sometimes you want to pick up a strong beer and don't get too drunk and it's only available in can 473ml format.

 

Not anymore. They recently switched Haus Lager to 4 packs and they are being priced at $7.99. Slight increase in cost per can. Still worth it though.

 

The only thing that stops a bad guy with a bottle is a good guy with a bottle.

 

Oh man, really? That stinks. That sixer, at that price, was a big part of my beer purchases. Oh well. I guess we’ll have to see if I still buy it. Probably will, ha.

 

Cans are definitely easier to store and ship. On glass’ side, I greatly prefer drinking beer from glass than from a metal (or plastic) container. Glass is also much better for the environment.

 

The popularity of cans will continue to drive the market, like most things. Doesn’t hurt that some of the best beers available here are canned as well.

As a trader I much prefer to ship cans, they just fit better, and they don’t break, maybe it’s just me but I think they’re a bit quieter than bottles.

 

Admirable thoroughness that I could not hope to achieve. I grew up in the Northwest in the 60s when the 11 oz. reusable stubby ruled for the "western" beers. Oregon passed the bottle law in 1971, and it included a 2c deposit for industry standard (11 stubby) but 5c for other bottles. The national brands (PBR and most others) then started showing up in the stubbies to take advantage of the lower deposit. The first craft brewer in Oregon, Cartwright, bottled their beer in bottle-law harvested Guinness 11.4 oz bottles! So they didn't brew great beer, but at least got the recycling right.

 

Picnic size? Never heard of that. I love it. A fantastic taco joint near me sells 32 oz. bottles of Corona Familiar. I would have bought it regardless of what was in side, ha (though the Corona Familiar was pretty good).

 

And, contrary to what you'd think, most picnics were unpasteurized, and the size meant they wouldn't fit in most people's smaller refrigerators of the era. But, then, that's why they were called "Picnics" - you'd buy them to consume immediately the day they were purchased.

Notice that some were crown-capped but also came with a "Flip-top" for reuse.

I think Meister Brau (the Chicago brewery, aka "Peter Hand", not the Miller cheapie the Milwaukee brewer made after buying the label) was the last US brewer to use them, into the late 1960s, IIRC.

Then throw-away 64 oz'ers came around a little while later, riding on the 40's popularity, but they were neither unpasteurized or called "Picnics" that I ever heard/read.

 

Definitely not at least based on Belgian and Quebecois brewers. Over the last six months I had approximately 150 Belgian beers (15-20 different beers) and I believe they were all in bottles.

 

I bet 85% of my beer comes in cans, now. Several local breweries distro in 16oz cans to store now.

I hate can/bottle deposit laws anyways, but cans are much easier to handle in that regard. Lighter and no broken shards of glass. In fact, local charities will take cans as a donation, but not sure how much they like the glass bottles.

 

I lived in NY when the deposit law was enacted. The chances of walking on or running a car or bike tire over broken beer bottles fell almost overnight. The problem with bottles and cans pitched from cars has increased since then, as the deposit amount hasn't kept up with inflation. It is possible that Iowans have always been less litter-prone than us in the east.

 

I love the shift to cans but don't like the shift from the 12oz format.

 

Yes, because some breweries want to sell 16x4's and consumers tend to associate 16 oz (or half-liter) bottles with singles.

 

So, no Delirium?