Beer: Bottles or cans?

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Going to a party and I know the party girl has been wanting to try Firestone Walker 805 ale. So I go to pick some up, and it is available in bottles or cans.

I have to pause and think as if I was considering two different types of beer. Then it dawns on me that other craft beers from various great brewers offer their beers in both bottles or cans.

There was no price difference between the two, so why offer a choice. I feel a sort of stigma about beer in a can from memories of metallic tasting beers of yore. But, maybe beer cans have changed, maybe their made differently. I grabbed the bottled ones after all. I always go for the bottles. But, perhaps the bottles let in to much light, and that jeopardizes the taste...

Is there a taste difference between beer in a bottle, versus a can?
Is that why there is a choice?
 
Since this is BITOG, you'll need to do a UA (Urine Analysis) to find out your BAC for each beer, and then go with the one that's cheapest and gives you the longest BUZ.
 
I think it depends but I find the cans have a better seal to keep the carbonation in..sometimes bottles dont. I dont mind either..i suppose it depends on the beer. Cans are convenient and weigh less, dont break when dropped...
 
Cans have a longer shelf-life, since they completely exclude light.

Cans don't shatter. Some campsites don't allow bottles, but do allow cans.

Cans are much cheaper and safer to ship, with FAR less product-loss due to damage.

Cans look cheap, like boxed wine, so consumers tend to be reluctant to buy premium beers in cans, even if the product is the same as that in bottles.

Modern cans have an internal multi-layer polymer liner that is extremely effective in insulating the product from the aluminum structure of the can. This means that there is no reaction between aluminum and product that might affect taste.

Any metallic taste will come from the exterior of the lid of the can as your mouth touches it. And even that is unlikely these days. If that bothers you anyway, just pour the beer into a glass.
 
Originally Posted By: Tegger
Cans have a longer shelf-life, since they completely exclude light.

Cans don't shatter. Some campsites don't allow bottles, but do allow cans.

Cans are much cheaper and safer to ship, with FAR less product-loss due to damage.

Cans look cheap, like boxed wine, so consumers tend to be reluctant to buy premium beers in cans, even if the product is the same as that in bottles.

Modern cans have an internal multi-layer polymer liner that is extremely effective in insulating the product from the aluminum structure of the can. This means that there is no reaction between aluminum and product that might affect taste.

Any metallic taste will come from the exterior of the lid of the can as your mouth touches it. And even that is unlikely these days. If that bothers you anyway, just pour the beer into a glass.
All the above and cans chill faster.
 
It seems as if very few posters actually read your question. I drink all sorts of beers and, while some might be able to discern a taste difference, it's not substantial enough to deter me from choosing a canned beverage. It's just not enough of a difference that I could even describe to you why I would choose one over the other.

I mostly by my beer in bottles, because it's easy to return, but every so often there will be an exotic beer offered only in cans that I try out, and never has there been an instance where I think to myself, "if only this came in a bottle, instead."
 
Here is my unofficial test

Heineken is skunky in bottles

Heineken is not skunky in cans or kegs

I won't drink it from bottles (green bottle beer is a no go for me) even if free, but I will drink free Heineken from a can or keg.

If Session ever comes in a can, I'd buy it...though the stubbies are pretty cool.
 
On the occasion that I drink beer, I'll only drink from a glass after it's poured from a bottle. There is an entirely different dimension added when you drink from a proper glass. My personal preference is a strong ale in a snifter.

Directly from the bottle? No thanks.
 
Since I predominantly drink German beers and the vast majority of them come in 500ml cans, my preference is cans, LOL! They are convenient, the taste is, as Tegger noted, unaffected, and lighter/more portable.
 
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Since I predominantly drink German beers and the vast majority of them come in 500ml cans, my preference is cans, LOL! They are convenient, the taste is, as Tegger noted, unaffected, and lighter/more portable.
Weird. Down here the German stuff is mostly bottles. Tucher has some half liter cans sometimes. I guess it's the relentless advertising of swill in pretty bottles that ruined everything in the USA.
 
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Since I predominantly drink German beers and the vast majority of them come in 500ml cans

That's because you're forced to obtain your German beers through the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, which has a wild fetish for 16.9oz/500mL cans. Few other jurisdictions have this obsession with cans.

You need to get out more. I suggest Premier Gourmet, in Amherst, NY. That single store alone exposes the LCBO for the monopolistic, tyrannical, insular, small-minded, small-time, so-very-Canadian hicks that they are.
 
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