Why does bottled lager taste better than canned?

Now I must admit, I do like a cold Stella in the garden in the summer.

I know how to and frequently have, brewed my own much better beer and lager but due to work and a house move haven’t been brewing for a few months. SO Stella by the BBQ is my guilty pleasure.

However, why does bottled Stella taste much better in the bottles than it does in the cans?

I assume it’s the same liquid and it’s just pasteurised cooking lager, why does the canned stuff have a certain “twang” ?

I don’t know but coke tastes way better in a glass bottle, second in a can, minging in a plastic bottle.

Same with Coca Cola. Water tastes wrong from a mug also.

’tis the bad ju-ju magic.

Don’t know but you are right.

They have slipped horse in there too, must be cheaper than the usual dogs piss.

It’s artisan, Chester.

Growing trend of ‘craft beers’ being sold in cans.
Cost saving on packaging for brewers?
Can weighs less than bottle – lower shipping costs? More units per m3?

It’s in the mind. Guess you need something to make Stella appear drinkable 😉

Not that I drink much lager, prefer ales. Lager has to work with curry for me, and Stella doesn’t unless I’m truly tanked up already. Also one of the few to give me a headache hangover, which makes me wonder what’s in it.

More seriously though, pour something canned into a glass. Tends to taste nicer.

Not a patch on poured from pump and barrel though.

Isn’t it because glass is more inert, and therefore doesn’t react with the liquid?

Surely it should be nicer in the cans? No light getting in, no loss of carbonation and it’ll stay fresher for longer. Perhaps there’s some mellowing of the beer in the bottle that makes it taste a bit nicer.

I’ll bet there’s thousands of threads about this on craftbeertrackworld.

Hmmm apparently cans offer the more authentic flavour as they are completely air tight.

Cans are much more readily recyclable than bottles and much lighter so greener all round. Although walking to pub a drinking draught wins…

Poured into glass I think it’s pretty much the same as bottled

Aren’t the ‘cans’ in the pub cellar made of the same stuff?

‘could be something galvanic going on or same as ‘eating with your fingers’ (?)

It used to be that canned beer was a bit weaker than bottled

A can is half the price of a bottle making an attractive proposition for the brewer. There is also more scope for advertising with a screen printed can .
There are 2 x mobile canning companies who offer on site canning making it more accessable than before.
Supermarkets are moving toward the craft can sector
Bottles create there own health risk with potential shards and as a weapon, PEN never really took off for festival plastic beer bottles.

Glass can let light through leading to sunstruck ( cats piss ) off flavours , so green or dark brown bottles used .

Cans have lower headspace = less potential for oxidisation , so should lead to better quality beer. However , there is still a taint which is detectable in light , softer beers with a metalic aftertatste. In bigger IPA styles this is alot less noticable.

Bottles have an oxygen scavenging membrane in the crown to help with taste preservation.

In terms of brewing and preperation the process is identical for canning and bottling . Why the big difference in taste has to be the packaging .

Dissolved carbon dioxide produces carbonic acid, which attacks the aluminium causing that metallic taste.

Poured into glass I think it’s pretty much the same as bottled

STW needs a Mythbusters-type ‘taste test’ video channel on Youtube. In fact a STWbusters channel could blind-test all manner of stuff from ‘Faster climbing with(out) bar-ends?’ to ‘which is the best pie out of these? Arguments to be extended settled furthered 😉

Stella in cans is 5.1% and bottles 5.2% iirc. That 0.1% is clearly where all the flavour is

Stella ruined brewed in the UK is 4.8 and is reminiscent of rats piss flitered through a tramps sock. Stella brewed in Belgium is I believe still 5.2 and if memory serves is acceptable on to taste buds.

All Stella Artois is 4.8%. Has been for a few years now.

I think the finest bottled lagers are:

1. Staropramen
2. Budvar
3. Peroni

Is that from the can as in drunk from the can? Pour it into a glass and it will taste better, if only because drinking from a can is vulgar, even went it is a premium product Iike Stella.

globalti – Member
Dissolved carbon dioxide produces carbonic acid, which attacks the aluminium causing that metallic taste.

Don’t the newer ‘craft’ canned beers use an internal coating that stops this? Have certainly heard a couple of brewers on TV making this claim to justify their choice of can over bottle. Don’t know enough to know whether this is true myself though.

Bought some bottled lager on offer recently which tasted pongy so there.

Isn’t staropramen a generic uk brew these days? I was out the country for a while and when I retired I bought a bottle of Star and was disappointed with the flavour read the label and it mentioned being brewed in the UK. Kingfisher has also changed in flavour since Shepherd Neame stopped brewing it.

Taste is of course a personal thing, but Pilsner Urquell is obviously the best widely available lager/pilsner.

The argument against cans is generally that they have more headspace and therefore harder to purge than bottles, but decent caning lines get around this by purging the whole line.

Bottles used to taste better as they would have live, unpasteurized beer in them. The yeast in the bottle consumes the oxygen which means the beer stays fresh.

The downside of bottles is they let light in giving lightstruck (Skunked) beer. This is a weird one because Corona, Sol, etc have made an entire industry selling people ‘premium’ beer to the point where people now think this is what beer is supposed to taste like.

You should never drink any beer from a bottle/can though,
1) it’s too fizzy
2) you miss out on the aroma which impacts your perception of taste, which is why most people will tell you beer tastes nicer from a keg, it’s the same beer as the can/bottle but it’s in a glass. Cask is a different matter, but that’s not lager.

Apparently all the craft breweries are switching to cans as it actually keeps flavour better than bottles. I heard this from a guy who is doing the artwork for a local craft brewery and they seem to know their stuff. I think some bigger ones like Beavertown also do only cans for the same reason.

Maybe the stuff you were previously drinking in cans is crap beer? Oh they were both Stella….maybe it tastes less bad in bottles. Sorry. 😉

Bottle are generally coloured to stop light ruining the beer. In an aluminium can.. no light.. lasts longer.
My brewmaster friend also advised that imported beer that has taken longer than necessary to clear through customs/distribution chain is obviously not as good as product that was just packaged..

Maybe the stuff you were previously drinking in cans is crap beer? Oh they were both Stella….maybe it tastes less bad in bottles.

As it can be made in different places it could be a difference. Continental producers had stricter rules on water etc where as brewed under licence means just the same recipe not the same quality. It’s possible to use a cheaper set of ingredients and still be the same product just not the same taste.

Although walking to pub a drinking draught wins…

Not a chance – Stella can be had for around 60p a pint in cans. In a pub it is easily £4+ around our way. I can’t justify those sort of prices.

I’m also with the OP. Bottles all the way.

I recon, its something with the glass keeping the beer cooler, typically smaller volumes so you don’t get that warm dreggy bit.

I think it’s psychological. With a can you just pop the tab and the contents of the can are there, easily accessed. A woman or a small child could do that. But a bottle, you need a tool for. And even with that tool you have to fight with the bottle. You and the bottle are locked in a primal struggle for survival, much like early man stalking a giant ground sloth on the plains, and you’ll only prevail using wiles, ingenuity and guile.

Cans/bottles IME would seem to be a class thing but with craft beers that’s being challenged now.

I wouldn’t serve house guests cans.

Cans/bottles IME would seem to be a class thing but with craft beers that’s being challenged now.

I wouldn’t serve house guests cans. 😯

Is it just my grumpy old cynicism, or does the term ‘craft beers’ make anyone else …

Don’t the newer ‘craft’ canned beers use an internal coating that stops this?

Yep that. My sister is opps manager in a craft brewery. Modern canning is cheaper, less wasteful, adaptable to different can sizes and now with the polymer coating doesn’t affect the taste. The shape of cans also means less packaging than bottles and they don’t break as easily. Lots of wins for very few losses.
Major breweries aren’t using the coating so you still get the taste difference between can/bottle/tap

I wonder if it’s the beer that tastes different or the fact you can taste the can?

Get someone to pour a can and a bottle into a glass without telling you which is which, then see if you can tell them apart. I’d be surprised if you could do that reliably (you will of course have to go through several beers to be sure, for science).

Is it just my grumpy old cynicism, or does the term ‘craft beer’ make anyone else go…

It has a definition now meaning not from the main stream, you can hate the term but it should mean independent

warms up quicker in a can.

mudshark – Member

Cans/bottles IME would seem to be a class thing but with craft beers that’s being challenged now.

I wouldn’t serve house guests cans.

😆

Good to know you drink your wife-beater “with class”.

What an amusing start to the day, cheers! 😀