Simple question: bottles or cans?

Depends on the line. My canning line in Tombstone measured total DO at 9 ppb on the lowest end and 35 ppb on the high end. My Meheen at my last brewery could easily introduce 150 ppb or higher.

 

Cans, only because of the outdoor aspects (allowed more places, lighter, etc).

Otherwise, doesn't matter to me

 

I’d choose bottles for aging

 

This is the only reason I purchase cans over bottles. If I'm tailgating or camping, I'm using a can. Otherwise, the other 97% of the time I prefer a bottle.

 

Maybe if the brewery is using a POS canning line without a c02 purge.

 

JFC one of my best friends is always like "arent you afraid of the BPA lining?". No, no I'm not.

Also: Cans every time. I'll only buy bottles if that's the only option.

 

I prefer whichever is closer to my hand. They're vessels for beer and as long as you drink your beer fresh, it shouldn't matter

 

If I am at home I prefer a bottle but that is more to do with aesthetics than anything else. Outside of my house give me a can for the ease.

 

Seriously rookie mistake my friend.

Any good beer drinker knows many ways to pop the cap from a bottle -- done it with everything from a belt buckle to the slider on a drawer. Never mind that I've carried a small bottle opener on my key chain for 20 years. No reason for me to pick can over bottle for want of access.

 

Maybe so, but there's also plenty of air in most bottles I see too. I can't measure it, but it looks like the cans have less air space than bottles. If it's total dissolved oxygen (think this right) then perhaps the canning process plays a part. SN is a leader in monitoring this and if it was a negative I don't think they'd be canning they would just stick to bottles. But I'm sure there's studies out there that more definitive than just my perceptions.

 

The visible head space in bottles coming off of a quality bottling line contains little or no O2, which is the critical thing since that is what promotes deterioration of beer quality. Both canning lines and bottling lines can leave O2 in that space and sometimes canning lines are worse even if there is less head space. Think of Total Packaged Oxygen (TPO), not just dissolved O2.

 

All things told, cans. But I have no issue going with bottles if that's the only option.

Bottles only when it comes to airline travel. If beer's going in my suitcase, it's going to be bottled. I've had cans burst in the past.

 

Line rate also has a influence on both.

 

I don't much care about the vessel my beer comes in unless I'm camping. Then it is only cans because they are easier to stack neatly in a cooler and no worries about broken glass.

 

Both bottles and cans “cap on foam”, as the foam bubbles are CO2.

One experiment I saw at Homebrewcon was to take a light colored bottles beer of your choice. Use two bottles, one as a control. Uncap one of the beers and let it set for a few minutes. Recap it (Homebrewers have cappers) and let it set warm for several days or a week. Keep the control cold. Chill the beer that has been recapped. Serve the beers side by side. The beer that had the O2 exposure will have staling, and darker color due to oxidation.

 

What was the point of that experiment? To show that beer oxidizes if exposed to oxygen? QED, I guess...

 

Some quality food for thought from industry people posting here (keep in mind that this is their perspective for better and for worse... and apologies if I've gotten any brewery associations wrong):

From a Firestone Walker employee:

From a Victory employee:

From an Anheuser-Busch employee:

 

It is a known fact* that it is more difficult to control TPO in canning than it bottling, and it is another known fact* that the canning lines used by smaller brewers are worse at controlling TPO that the ones used by larger brewers and another known fact* that portable canning lines are the worst.

*known fact = a factoid repeated often enough here that it becomes something everybody knows.

 

I can't tell if we cross-posted, or if you're agreeing with me, or if you're mocking me.