Beer in cans versus bottles

Springs Branch · 21 Feb 2020

There seems to be a push by some brewers to migrate their beers from bottles into cans.

The recent proliferation of cans first came about via craft & microbreweries - these operations generally don't have the production volume to make bottling in glass economic, whereas affordable small scale can-filling equipment is available.

But now bigger breweries seem to have latched onto a greater respectability for tinned beer - not such strong connotations of Fosters Lager & Carlsberg Special Brew any more). Their marketing departments have been working overtime to explain to us why cans are so much better than bottles - no light strike, easier to carry etc - when I'm sure the motivation is really cheaper manufacturing, warehousing and transport of established products.

What do you think?
How much of this is truth & how much spin?
Is beer from a can just as good as (or better than) the same brew from a bottle?

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najaB · 21 Feb 2020

Springs Branch said:
How much of this is truth & how much spin?

It shouldn't, chemically speaking, make any difference as aluminium forms an inert oxide layer that is just as non-reactive as glass over the limited shelf life of a typical beer.

Throw in the fact that it's lighter, and easier to recycle and it's a no-brainer to me.

What I can't abide by is beer in a plastic bottle...

Mag_seven · 21 Feb 2020

My own preference is for beer to be served in a glass after being hand pumped from a cask! However for takeaway I would prefer a bottle as cans give the beer a "tinny/metalic" taste.

Bletchleyite · 21 Feb 2020

Oddly I find Grolsch tastes better in a can than a bottle. Don't know why though, it may be a different formulation.

Coke is definitely nicer from a bottle, again not sure why.

Bald Rick · 21 Feb 2020

Bletchleyite said:
Oddly I find Grolsch tastes better in a can than a bottle. Don't know why though, it may be a different formulation.

Coke is definitely nicer from a bottle, again not sure why.

Agreed re Grolsch. Heineken also. Perhaps it’s a Dutch thing.

Bobdogs · 21 Feb 2020

Mag_seven said:
My own preference is for beer to be served in a glass after being hand pumped from a cask! However for takeaway I would prefer a bottle as cans give the beer a "tinny/metalic" taste.

Totally agree. I can't stand cans whatever they contain.

najaB · 21 Feb 2020

Bletchleyite said:
Coke is definitely nicer from a bottle, again not sure why.

99% sure that it's psychological. ISTR some tests show that avowed Coke drinkers prefer Pepsi when it's in a red cup.

yorksrob · 21 Feb 2020

Some beers suit cans better than others I find.

DelW · 21 Feb 2020

najaB said:
Throw in the fact that it's lighter, and easier to recycle and it's a no-brainer to me.

Aluminium is easy to recycle, but sadly a lot of cans don't get recycled. Around our way, a lot are dropped at the roadside, or thrown over fences or hedges. Some are from soft drinks, but most are beer cans - I suspect, though with no evidence, that it's local teenagers who don't want to take the evidence home.
Last week I collected over 30 from about a 100-yard stretch of road near me, to go in my recycling bin. Unfortunately they need to be rinsed out first, which is a messy business as some are smelly or have slugs etc. inside.
Having said all that, I'm not sure whether glass bottles would be less likely to be thrown aside or not ☹

Bald Rick · 21 Feb 2020

DelW said:
Aluminium is easy to recycle, but sadly a lot of cans don't get recycled. Around our way, a lot are dropped at the roadside, or thrown over fences or hedges. Some are from soft drinks, but most are beer cans - I suspect, though with no evidence, that it's local teenagers who don't want to take the evidence home.
Last week I collected over 30 from about a 100-yard stretch of road near me, to go in my recycling bin. Unfortunately they need to be rinsed out first, which is a messy business as some are smelly or have slugs etc. inside.
Having said all that, I'm not sure whether glass bottles would be less likely to be thrown aside or not ☹

I find bottles and cans on my road. Even bottles of rosé!

Bayum · 21 Feb 2020

najaB said:
99% sure that it's psychological. ISTR some tests show that avowed Coke drinkers prefer Pepsi when it's in a red cup.

Wouldn’t bet on it.

In the medical industry, it’s well known that plastic can leach micro particles over time leading to patients being able to taste strange tastes and have strange sensations.

There’s a study that I will try and find whereby upwards of 85% of participants in a double-blind study were able to identify whether the saline being pushed through their cannula was from a glass vial or plastic casing.

Bayum · 21 Feb 2020

najaB said:
99% sure that it's psychological. ISTR some tests show that avowed Coke drinkers prefer Pepsi when it's in a red cup.

A simple google search for something like, ‘Frinks taste better from glass bottles’ will bring up a wealth of suggestions explaining why your point is incorrect.

C J Snarzell · 21 Feb 2020

Ever since I went to Thailand in 2017 I love drinking bottled Chang or Singha beer. It does taste different though to how it was over there - maybe because its brewed in somewhere like Northampton!

najaB · 21 Feb 2020

Bayum said:
In the medical industry, it’s well known that plastic can leach micro particles over time leading to patients being able to taste strange tastes and have strange sensations

The key thing there is "over time". I don't doubt for a minute that the taste changes with weeks or months of storage, but cola generally has a shelf life of hours in any large supermarket.

Bayum · 21 Feb 2020

najaB said:
The key thing there is "over time". I don't doubt for a minute that the taste changes with weeks or months of storage, but cola generally has a shelf life of hours in any large supermarket.

When was it brought into the store? How long did it take from being processed and packaged before making its journey? How long was the journey? Are there any factors in the process that would cause this process to happen? Lots of variables.

GusB · 22 Feb 2020

Bayum said:
When was it brought into the store? How long did it take from being processed and packaged before making its journey? How long was the journey? Are there any factors in the process that would cause this process to happen? Lots of variables.

Supermarket products are usually worked (placed on shelves) as soon as they arrive in store. Any overstock is then returned to the back store and usually worked later in the day, or the next day. High-volume lines such as soft drinks rarely stay on the shelves for long, and if there is a build up of back-stock it indicates that there is a problem with the profiling (telling the system how much it needs to hold before a new order is generated), or an issue with stock control. There are also periodic checks to ensure that stock is being rotated properly, and anything that is approaching its best before date is removed from general stock and reduced to clear as necessary.

The distribution centres will hold pallets of stock for a very short period of time between arrival from the manufacturer and distribution to smaller delivery centres, or direct to stores.

lyndhurst25 · 22 Feb 2020

Mag_seven said:
My own preference is for beer to be served in a glass after being hand pumped from a cask! However for takeaway I would prefer a bottle as cans give the beer a "tinny/metalic" taste.

Metal drinks cans are lined with a thin layer of plattic. There are lots of demonstrations on YouTube where people dissolve Coke cans using strong acid/alkali to reveal what's inside. Any funny taste that you experience isn't coming from the aluminium and must either be from chemicals leaching out of the plastic or be psychological.

najaB · 22 Feb 2020

Bayum said:
When was it brought into the store? How long did it take from being processed and packaged before making its journey? How long was the journey? Are there any factors in the process that would cause this process to happen? Lots of variables.

Indeed, there are lots of variables but the large supermarkets have it down to a fine art. Goods sitting in a warehouse are a cost, so as much as possible the whole supply chain operates on a just-in-time basis - to the extent that the supermarkets will vary their orders based on the weather forecast for the next few days.

HSTEd · 22 Feb 2020

Honestly I think canned Coke tastes better than plastic bottle coke, but that might just be that you tend to drink the canned coke fresh because you can't reclose the container.

jamesbwxm · 22 Feb 2020

Caveat: I'm an ex-brewer.

There's a few companies now that come to your premises to can your beer in volumes as small as 1000l. A few years ago this wasn't a thing and bottling was the only way of doing it.

Cans are superior to bottles as they let less UV light and oxygen in so the beer stays better for longer.

There's at least one company who I won't name that DGAF about dissolved oxygen levels in the packaged product and they just happen to be cheaper than the other companies so a lot of misguided brewers go with them, that's why it's so hit and miss with cans from smaller breweries.

Breweries like Magic Rock have their own canning equipment and have proper control over the entire process.

Don't disregard beer just because it's in a can. It's not the 90's anymore. There's some excellent beer available in cans now.

route101 · 23 Feb 2020

C J Snarzell said:
Ever since I went to Thailand in 2017 I love drinking bottled Chang or Singha beer. It does taste different though to how it was over there - maybe because its brewed in somewhere like Northampton!

Both we get here are Thai brewed.

DarloRich · 24 Feb 2020

Silly brown lager ("craft" ale) tends to come in cans. People with trendy beards and silly shoes and trousers that don't fit properly and wear shoes with no socks love it.

Proper, brown, northern, working men's ale comes in a bottle.

Bletchleyite · 24 Feb 2020

DarloRich said:
Proper, brown, northern, working men's ale comes in a bottle.

Assuming you to be referring to Newky Brown (there isn't a Darlo equivalent, is there?) I've long wondered why that mostly does come in bottles and not in a cask or nitrokeg, where you'd expect most "working men" would get their ale from and do in most places.

DarloRich · 24 Feb 2020

Bletchleyite said:
Assuming you to be referring to Newky Brown (there isn't a Darlo equivalent, is there?) I've long wondered why that mostly does come in bottles and not in a cask or nitrokeg, where you'd expect most "working men" would get their ale from and do in most places.

Exhibition tends to come in a keg although I have drunk Broon on keg in various places in the past. I do like Broon but it does seem to have changed taste since they sacrilegiously switched production to Tadcaster. BTW it's dog or broon. Never, EVER "Newky Brown"! It is interesting that foreign drinkers see it as a trendy ale but we apparently see it as a hard, working mans drink.

I wasn't particularly thinking of that brand but of the type of northern (and Yorkshire) brown ale that real men drink

There are lots of good versions. Although I lived in Newcastle my family come from Sunderland so I prefer Vaux ( sigh)

johntea · 24 Feb 2020

How come the 'twist off' bottle caps never seemed to really take off other than Budweiser?

It is annoying wanting to buy a few bottles for the train before remembering you haven't got a bottle opener! (Although granted there are interesting subsitute solutions to that problem!)

DaleCooper · 24 Feb 2020

johntea said:
How come the 'twist off' bottle caps never seemed to really take off other than Budweiser?

It is annoying wanting to buy a few bottles for the train before remembering you haven't got a bottle opener! (Although granted there are interesting subsitute solutions to that problem!)

Always carry your Swiss Army knife.

61653 HTAFC · 24 Feb 2020

I prefer cans, solely because I can put them in my green bin when I'm done with them. My local authority stopped glass collection a few years ago, and as i don't have a car trips to the bottle bank are a pain.

Bletchleyite · 24 Feb 2020

DaleCooper said:
Always carry your Swiss Army knife.

And don't try to open them on the luggage rack of a class 158 (as you can with a sharp-edged table by hooking the edge of the cap on and whacking the top), as if you do you'll look an idiot stood there with a smashed bottle and a load of glass slivers in your beer.

Bletchleyite · 24 Feb 2020

DarloRich said:
Exhibition tends to come in a keg although I have drunk Broon on keg in various places in the past. I do like Broon but it does seem to have changed taste since they sacrilegiously switched production to Tadcaster. BTW it's dog or broon. Never, EVER "Newky Brown"! It is interesting that foreign drinkers see it as a trendy ale but we apparently see it as a hard, working mans drink.

Why "dog"?

DaleCooper · 24 Feb 2020

Bletchleyite said:
And don't try to open them on the luggage rack of a class 158 (as you can with a sharp-edged table by hooking the edge of the cap on and whacking the top), as if you do you'll look an idiot stood there with a smashed bottle and a load of glass slivers in your beer.

I have a vague recollection from my youth that certain concrete lampposts had a metal cover with a recess that could be used as a bottle opener ... or am I just imagining it?

Beer in cans versus bottles

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