Bottle vs can

I have grown to prefer the can for its superior portability and operation, but will not turn my nose up at glass if the can selection is poor or I just crave what is only available in a bottle.

 

The industry should switch from aluminum cans to 14k gold cans. Sure prices would go up significantly, but you would ensure close to 100% recycling rates.

 

Ya know, that's the common wisdom (which I've also repeated when the topic comes up) but a few years ago I noticed this in Boston Beer Co.'s Annual Report, which is still there in 2019's edition:

It makes sense that they could do it since both their Cincinnati (ex-Schoenling) and Pennsylvania (ex-Schaefer/Stroh) date from the era when reusable bottles still out sold throw-away bottles, so they would have the bottle washing equipment.

Funny that BBC never promotes that fact - although I've noticed a lot of people, especially those too young to recall the true returnables are revolted by the idea of a reused bottle (to which I usually reply: "Ever eat in a non-fast food restaurant? You know that glass you drank from, the plate the food was served on, the very fork you put in your mouth? All washed and reused. Yes, and that soup spoon had once been in someone's else mouth! ") so maybe they've decided the "green" label might not outweigh that? I've never noticed any bottles that look reused, w/the whitish wear rings around them but I can't say I buy much SA beers.

Well, although there were a number of different returnable/reusable bottles, - color, volume and shape - many US brewers did each other's, especially the standard amber long neck, but I've seen pictures of cases of empty Lord Chesterfield Ale greenies mixed in the pallets of Ballantine Ale cases at the Falstaff brewery in Ft. Wayne. I toured F X Matt (then the "West End Brewing Co.") in the 1970s when they were unloaded empties and one saw all sorts of "shells" from numerous other brewers mixed in with the Utica Club and Matt's Premium cases and the guide has to explain to the curious/conspiracy-minded that "No, we don't brew Genesee Cream Ale or Budweiser or Stegmaier here, we just re-use each others bottles...".

The Canadian breweries abandoned their uniform bottle - the stubby - back in the 80s IIRC, which probably contributed to the expense and the loss of market share of the reusables.

Speaking of expense and being "green" - there are negatives of re-using bottles - a less efficient distribution system (picking up, storing, returning bottles = labor, warehousing and fuel dollars, and would be even more difficult with the very broad distribution even small breweries have today), the energy costs washing the bottles, pollution/waste water treatment of the strong detergents. But a centralized system might eliminate some of that, similar to the keg rental/exchange systems being used, like Microstar.

 

I’ve had it happen on more then 1 occasion where I’ve bought beer from a make your own 6 pack shelf and a can or 2 tastes “ off”. The big box store near me takes broken 4 or 6 packs or old dates out of their cooler and shelves them in that aisle. I haven’t done that there in a few years because I feel it’s like playing roulette and not fair to the brewers. Thanks for the info, cheers.

 

Isn't SNPA "bottle-conditioned"? Can a beer be "Can-conditioned"? I purchase both cans & bottles of SNPA - cans for the lake and bottles the majority of time as they are always available & relatively fresh. I feel like I taste a difference with a preference towards the bottles. Cans of SNPA are good, but it almost seems like a different beer. Probably just me.

 

When it comes to environmental impact, people just don't like going down more than one layer. A superficial reading seems to be good enough for most folks. Which is fine because it's not like anything important is at stake.

 

Cans over bottles....lighter, chill faster, no bottle caps.....plus I pour almost everything into a glass.

The exception is mass produced adjunct lagers ..... those I prefer in bottles....for nostalgic reasons.

 

1. Can are less fragile. Broken glass sucks
2. Can are completely impervious to light
3. Bottle lose carbonation when stored on my boat. The constant motion in the slip wrecks havoc on them, and beers seem to go flat in less than a month. During winter and covid, that's a deal breaker.

Cans for the easy win.

 

Jack, this presupposes that all oxygen is bad for beer. But 90% of my beer (pre COVID!) has been cask, the improvement over other form of dispense is well known. So of course is the spoilage when time passes.
Perhaps the small increment of oxygen in a bottle could actually improve it? Oxygen is not the problem, too much oxidation is.

 

I too have had many cask ales in the UK at various pubs in London, Cambridge, Edinburgh,... and yes over a period of a couple of days the effects of oxidation can be pleasing but about 3-4 days post tapping a cask those beers taste bad.

I suppose that is a possibility but how much oxygen (how many days in the bottle) will this be achieved? And just as the case for cask beers too much oxygen (e.g., too much time in the bottle) yields beer that tastes stale.

My preference for the vast majority of beer styles is to mitigate the amount of oxygen when the beer is packaged and eliminate the ingress of oxygen once the beer is packaged.

You did not ask specifically about bottle conditioning but as it turns out the presence of live yeast in bottle conditioned beers acts as an anti-oxidant and because of this effect those bottled beers have improved beer stability (e.g., improved beer shelf-life). My homebrewed beers, which I bottle, will stay good for 6+ months post bottling and some of those beers (given the beer style) improve over a period of a few months. Each beer style/batch will have its own performance in this regard. For example I have a batch of Bitter Ale that I bottled June 5th and those beers are still drinking quite nicely and even perhaps 'better' today than in July?

Cheers!

Cheers!

 

If the can has already been produced, I'll take it over the bottle.

If the can hasn't yet been produced, I'd prefer they produce a bottle instead.

 

Thanks. I was really just thinking aloud if you understand me. Interestingly Worthington White Shield is said to go through a "dumb phase" and then improve over time. Certainly longer than most people keep their bottles.

 

Honestly if I want to pour the beer out, it's got to be a bottle, but if I want peace of mind that the beer has not gone skunky I'm more for the cans which I find to be more reliable at keeping the beer good and ready to drink, but not so great for pouring out of..

 

So beer that has sat in a cooler, without ice for over a week, in 100 degrees plus Fahrenheit smells bad, tastes bad, is technically, not skunked? Because it didn't receive UV rays?

 

Well, "skunked" is slang, it is not a technical term. If one is using it as a synonym to describe light-struck beer (once aka "sun-struck" - I guess before florescent light became common?) which is the typical casual usage, then, no, it is not. It is exposure to light that causes the chemical reaction that creates the defect.

Also, it is not only the UV wavelength (10 nm to 400nm) that causes light-struck beer.

 

Are you drinking the cans at the lake from the same glassware you drink the bottled beer at home?

 

Cans>Bottles. They store and age better. Cans are easier to store in the refrigerator and can pack better. Easier cleanup too. But more importantly, I've found bottles ages significantly worse than cans. In nearly all styles, cans hold up well, while bottles are either oxidized or allow the carbonation to fade too quickly. Sure, you can find an IPA bottled within a month and drink it fresh. However, much more commonly I see IPAs on the shelves on average about 3 months old. A can would hold up much better. Cans for the future!

 

Kinda liking the can now a days.

Cheers!

 

On land at lake & at home, I use the same style of glassware. On a boat, I drink from the can. (And I must say the thought of drinking a SNPA on a boat is already sounding good as I watch the 1st snowfall of the season slowly melt away.)