While I don't really have any beer nostalgia, since I've only been in the game for a few months now, and have only been of drinking age for a few years, but yeah, the old school bottle designs go hard. Cans can look pretty cool too, but there's just something about the vintage aesthetic that a lot of bottles have that just really speaks out to me (also a lot of craft breweries tend to shit the bed when it comes to can design. It's almost always some hipster-ass abstractionist painting of two dogs humping. Real "stomp, clap, hey" type shit lmao)
...what....What....WHAAAATT!?!?!?! Am I now drinking for jesskidden and another half-dozen of you others that only have one (or two) in a sitting?!?!?!?!? Jeebus!!!! Even I'M not gonna be able to keep this up in a few years for all of y'all at this point!! ....and by the by..... "Poolside" is an excellent song by Webb Wilder & the Beatnecks from their 1986 LP (google LPs, kids), "It Came From Nashville". .......open up another brew....and discuss......whilst I crack my fourth or fifth one of today.......liver be damned!!
Can..especially the brews in clear or green bottles. I don't mind brown bottles at all. I hate skunked beer.
You shouldn't crush aluminum cans if you're putting them in single stream recycling because it's harder to sort. If you're recycling manually, it's ok.
For me, cans (mostly). When I travel, I've never had a bottle as a casualty, but I am a tad more nervous when I'm lugging quite a few bottles in luggage. Cans, give me more peace of mind. Practicality of packaging, distro, environment...Cans win. Love it when beers that were previously only available in large format bottles (especially high gravity offering) are newly available in 12oz or 16 oz format.
To me beer is better out of bottles, as cans can impart a metallic flavor in some cases-That being said, I always pour my beer into a glass to enjoy whenever possible
I just buy just the beer sometimes. Then returnable/refillable bottles. Now growers and keg still work, but I don't have the turnover to have a keg at home..
I'm vacationing in Bamberg Germany. The shelves in the supermarket are >2:1 in favor of bottles. Most of the bottles are from the local breweries that have been around a long time, a few are from Munich. The cans are from the large German industrial breweries, PU, and Budvar. The street drinkers (legal here) all drink from bottles.
I love the look and feel of a bottle. However when it comes to taste the can is hermiticly sealed, and let's no light or air inside. A bottle leaks from the cap once bottled in very, very small amounts over time. Bottles are heavy and can break. Bottles let 50% or more light inside. Bottles using glass are also inert unlike aluminum but now cans are sealed. Unless you crumple the can while drinking it is basically like glass. There is no aluminum taste like in the past. I would recommend pouring out of the can as soon as possible and drink from a glass/mug. Test. Take a 6 pack of bottles and cans of the same beer. Let sit in fridge for a year and try both. Tell me which tastes better/fresher. If you can get beer that is very fresh and cold filtered and drink it quickly after purchase then the benefits of a can are irrelevant and a bottle for clean taste might be preferable. From a recycling standpoint I believe that aluminum is easier to recycle than glass and can be reused in volume more than glass. Cans are easier to throw away. Whatever you prefer is best. I generally prefer cans.
Bless your grandmother, but I couldn't help but think, as I read that story: "When my granny drank in the nursing home, she wanted cans, because she wanted to be quiet about it." Anyway, it's cans for me...I drink almost entirely imports, and bottles don't make the trip as well as cans. Cans are always fresher tasting by the time I get it.
The evolution of craft beer has changed my opinion on bottle vs cans. back in the day when you would drink Bud Light and what not it always tasted better in the bottle. but I really think that it was just a beer. Extraordinary. The style is also matter, stout and sour are always gonna be better from the bottle while IPAs will always be better than you can.
Beer cans, whether aluminum or, originally, tin-plated steel, were always lined. The first US manufacturer of cans, the American Can Co., called their liner by the trademarked name KEGLINED. (below, left) a du Pont patent for their can-lining material.
Specimens of my homebrew bottled over 40 years ago retain original carbonation. A secure crown cap works fine (a twistoff not so permanent). Glass is also inert to beer, and light shouldn't be a problem for home storage. My old beer pours clear, except for the yeast deposit. Cans are fine for storage for a possibly a year. For longer periods (not sure how long) a youtube tasting of old canned beers showed that the can liners (see JessKiddden post) often deteriorate and flecks of gunk end up in the beer. Dented cans can, and do, leak.
EEE-YOW!!! You have 40 year old bottles of homebrew?!? 1. You have more patience/discipline and a few other etc., etc., than I ever did as a homebrewer and 2. Seriously? I've still got a few bottles of mead/melomel/braggot stashed from the mid 1990s but I've kept my paws off of them more because they've turned into cleaning products rather than palatable homebrew. And yes, most of them in the old 12oz. bottles still have a faint hint of carbonation when I throw caution to the winds once a year but seriously? You have 40 year old bottles of homebrew?!? I bow to your superior juju/kung-fu....
I served a dark ale to my wife without telling her it was my old homebrew. She thought it was pretty good. The amber ale was beery, but had a sharp character I suppose was a fermentation defect. I think my homebrew carbonation retention was due to a cast-iron capper with machine screw piston that is able to mash the crowns on. My grandfather used it during prohibition to bottle fruit wines.
