Beer From Cans or Bottles – Our Subjective Review

There is debate about whether beer tastes better from cans or bottles. Research has been performed that shows that in blind testing no significant difference has been perceived, but there is also research that shows that amber beer has more metabolic changes when stored in cans than when stored in bottles.

Our subjective testing (non-blind) has shown that there does seem to be a difference with lager beers.

Subjectively beer from bottles had a smoother, for lack of a better word, “cleaner” taste. Beer stored in cans had a slightly edgier taste. This was noticed both when comparing beers of the same make in bottles and cans as well as when comparing beers of different makes. Universally lager in cans seemed to have an edgier taste when compared to bottled beers. In recently filled cans the effect might be less prominent.

There is also research that shows that even internally coated cans fail to fully prevent aluminum from leaching into beverages stored in them.

Considering the known health effects of ingesting aluminium we’re going to start prioritising glass bottles for our beverages, when possible.

When comparing the environmental effect of glass bottles vs aluminum cans the choice is less clear. Both have environmental drawbacks due to the processes involved in manufacturing.

The aluminum can requires smelting of aluminum and mining of bauxite, but is lighter in weight than glass which is heavier to transport and possibly more difficult to recycle, but then again, producing a tonne of virgin aluminium from bauxite can use 10x as much electricity as manufacturing the same amount of glass from sand. Both options are however completely recyclable and the overall conclusion about the environmental impact might be significantly influenced by the parameters included in the evaluation.

Efficient recycling is needed for both materials, especially for aluminum cans where production of new cans causes significantly more greenhouse emissions than production of new glass.

Links to the research on aluminum leaching into cans as well as research on the environmental impact of manufacturing:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9921712/

https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/LIFE_CYCLE_ASSESSMENT_ON_ALUMINIUM_CAN_AND_GLASS_BOTTLE_FOR_PACKAGING_OF_500_ml_BEER/3206518