How much of a difference do cans make in terms of keeping a beer fresh? Is it safe to say that cans a superior to bottles in a keeping a beer more fresh?
a can is a better barrier from light and oxygen vs a bottle. the only true way to see how much longer the beer will stay "fresh" is to buy a couple of canned IPAs that come in bottles as well, ie Torpedo, and drink a bottle and a can fresh, then have one a couple weeks later, then a couple weeks later....etc. See when the beer starts to drop off in the bottle and the can
Some people who make cans and canning lines claim that cans keep the beer fresher longer. Some people who have spent the money on a canning line and the cans to put their beer in claim that cans keep the beer fresher longer. However, I've never seen any data to prove that claim, just the claim itself. Some day someone will produce data from a blind tasting of the same beer from the same batch bottled and canned on the same day where the canning and bottliing lines leave the same amount of residual oxygen in the container after it is sealed, and we might know. Until then.... That said, there is no question that cans protect the beer from light better than do bottles so the beer is less likely to get light struck. Its also the case that cans are lighter in weight and easier to ship than bottles, etc. So there are some real benefits to canning. For what comparisons I have done personally with beers that come in both can and bottle, I can't taste any difference. But then for me its not really an issue since most of the beers I drink are purchased within less than 2 months of being put in the container (usually less than a month), are local (so they don't get shipped over long distances), and are consumed within less than 3 months (usually less than 2 months) of being purchased.
To ‘springboard’ off of what drrth posted, the freshness of a packaged beer is highly dependent on how much residual oxygen was left within the can/bottle. I think this is more dependent on the ‘quality’ of a given bottling line or canning line. During the packaging process the bottleing/canning line will purge the bottle/can with CO2 to displace as much air (oxygen) as possible. There are claims that a given canning system will produce a packaged beer which has very little oxygen within the can. Below is some press from Cask Brewing Systems (a vendor of canning systems): The breakthrough that has allowed a small six-barrel brewery such as Oskar Blues to enter this traditionally big brewery package is a small canner, seamer and six-packer developed by Cask Brewing Systems, Inc of Calgary, Canada. Selling for about $9,000, this highly affordable machine will can about 8-10 cans per minute with a staff of 2-3 people working the line. The system was originally designed by Cask three years ago so that Brew-on-Premise operators could enable their customers to put beer in cans rather than bottles. "We added a CO2 pre-purge and increased the speed of the fill last year and suddenly we were getting some interest from brew pub and small microbrewery owners," said Kersten Kloss, Western Sales Manager, North America for Cask. "We've had packaged air contents measured by Siebel and they are rated excellent," said Kloss. "The shelf life of the packaged beer will be the best it can possibly be." A ‘good’ bottling line will produce beers which will last longer than a ‘bad’ canning line. Cheers!
