Drinking from the can...a good idea?

tl;dr

You do know what materials beer is brewed and fermented in, right?

 

Licks the foam from the cap at 1:34 after floating it. True Beer Advocate!

 

If I'm working in the yard or garage I'll drink from a can and enjoy it just as much as I do from a glass. Too many BA's get hung up trying to make beer a mystical experience, I drink beer for its simple pleasures.

 

Yeah, sterilized ones, to which carefully controlled quality ingredients, including filtered water, are added then boiled and fermented before bottling or canning to maintain that sterility-controlled environment so you & I can drink a consistently healthy and delicious beverage.
So clean your glass, clean your can and most importantly, enjoy the beer.

 

You realize this is stainless steel and in rare cases copper not aluminum or BPA can lining right???

 

This. The reason Heady Topper is so good from the can is due to the volatiles present in the late addition hops. The process of decanting in general (wine, beer, whatever) is to "open up" the product, which is just another way of saying that it releases volatiles. It's also why some people prefer to add a drop of water to break the surface tension in their Scotch–it allows the volatile compounds beneath the surface to escape, ostensibly making the drink smoother and more palatable. But in this case, we want the volatiles because that's exactly what makes the beer so famous in the first place.

FWIW, I had a fresh can of Heady Topper the day before yesterday with two friends who have never tried it. We did a small pour into a glass and the rest in the can to compare, and all agreed that the canned version tasted remarkably different. Volatiles are called that for a reason—they are easily disturbed. When you pour the beer out of the can, many of these escape.

One thing that a lot of people in this thread aren't mentioning is that this can be applied to bottles as well—not just cans. There's nothing special about cans as far as this is concerned; the main reason breweries like The Alchemist and Oskar Blues use cans is because they're cheaper and they keep beer fresh more easily (and in some cases, longer). A fresh beer in the bottle is essentially the same as a fresh canned beer, assuming that it hasn't been exposed to excessive UV light or heat. So if you can think of a particularly bright IPA that you can get fresh bottles of, maybe try a side-by-side with a glass pour and the rest in the bottle and see what you think. As with Heady, you'll be sacrificing a small amount of aroma in exchange for a heavier dose of volatile compounds.

 

OK, I will bite on this.

Volatiles are perceived by your nose (which then ‘translates’ them to flavor). How does your nose perceive volatiles when your lips are completely wrapped around the bottle?

Cheers!

 

I typically prefer not to drink from the can...but I don't mind drinking while on it.

 

This thread makes me want some more Heady Topper damnit.

 

But if you're pouring from the can, isn't the beer flowing over that same contaminated lip of the can?

 

yes.... PBR is way better out of a glass................... but, it is no Oskar Blues, that's for sure!

 

I stand corrected—it didn't occur to me that the term "volatiles" only refers to aroma-producing compounds. In this case, I have no idea why Heady Topper tastes better from the can, I only know that it does. Hmmm...

 

“I have no idea why Heady Topper tastes better from the can.”

Well, drinking from a can is a bit different than drinking from a bottle. When I drink from the can (which is rare) I don’t wrap my lips around the whole can top so there is opportunity for some volatiles (aroma) to escape from the can top and enter my nose. There is zero opportunity for volatiles to escape the bottle if I drink from the bottle.

It would seem that the new cans from Sam Adams and the latest can design from Sly Fox will encourage even more volatiles to escape during drinking due to having larger can openings.

Cheers!

 

I have had Jai Alai from both the can and a glass. It's the same beer, but it's much better when poured. I love the way that beer smells.

 

LOL, funny stuff! Nothing like hearing my dog slurping from the throne at two in the morning cause her dish was empty.

 

I like Heady way more from the can than the glass. The brewery itself is telling you to drink it from the can, so a peon the likes of me shouldn't disobey them

 

Surly says it's a beer in a can that is meant to be poured in a glass.

I'll drink from a can if I'm drinking outdoors or at a party. Other than that, I prefer to pour it in a glass.

 

Have you ever conducted a side by side tasting to compare drinking from the can vs. a glass?

Cheers!

 

No, but I have with a bottle. They tasted basically the same, but I enjoyed the aroma from the glass a lot more than the bottle.

 

Well, the 'challenege' of the bottle vs. glass comparison is that you get zero aroma from drinking from the bottle. You will get some aroma from drinking from the can with the alleged benefit of not 'disturbing' the volatiles from pouring. This is the explanation for why Heady Topper tastes better from the can vs. a glass.

Cheers!