Beer bottle

Assortment of beer bottles

A beer bottle is a bottle made to contain beer, usually made of glass and come in various sizes, shapes and colours. Dark amber or brown glass greatly reduces UV light from spoiling the beer. However, lighter colored bottles are often used for marketing reasons.

The common alternative to glass bottles are beverage cans and aluminum bottles.

Bottling lines

Bottling lines are production lines that fill beer into bottles on a large scale.

This typically involves drawing beer from a holding tank and filling it into bottles in a filling machine (filler), which are then capped, labeled and packed into cases or cartons. Many smaller breweries send their bulk beer to large facilities for contract bottling—though some will bottle by hand.

The first step in bottling beer is depalletising, where the empty bottles are removed from the original pallet packaging delivered from the manufacturer, so that individual bottles may be handled. The bottles may then be rinsed with filtered water or air, and may have carbon dioxide injected into them in attempt to reduce the level of oxygen within the bottle. The bottle then enters a "filler" which fills the bottle with beer and may also inject a small amount of inert gas (CO₂ or nitrogen) on top of the beer to disperse oxygen, as O₂ can ruin the quality of the product by oxidation.

Next the bottle enters a labelling machine ("labeller") where a label is applied. The product is then packed into boxes and warehoused, ready for sale.

Shape and size

Stubby

Australian 375 ml stubbie

A short glass bottle used for beer is generally called a stubby. Shorter and flatter than standard bottles, stubbies pack into a smaller space for transporting. The bottles are sometimes made with thick glass so that the bottle can be cleaned and reused before being recycled. The capacity of a stubby is generally somewhere between 330 and 375 ml (11.6 and 13.2 imp fl oz; 11.2 and 12.7 U.S. fl oz). The Canadian stubby bottle was traditionally 341 ml (11.5 U.S. fl oz; 12.0 imp fl oz) while the U.S. longneck was 355 ml (12.0 U.S. fl oz; 12.5 imp fl oz). Some of the expected advantages of stubby bottles are: easier to handle; less breakage; lighter in weight; less storage space; and lower center of gravity.

Stubbies are used extensively in Europe, and were used almost exclusively in Canada from 1962 to 1986 as part of a standardization effort intended to reduce breakage, and the cost of sorting bottles when they were returned by customers. Due to their nostalgic value, stubbies were reintroduced by a number of Canadian craft brewers in the early 2000s. In the U.S., stubbies have generally fallen out of favour, with only a few brands still using them such as the Session Lager by the Full Sail Brewing Company, and Red Stripe, a Jamaican brand import.

The 2-liter (70.4 imp fl oz; 67.6 U.S. fl oz) "Darwin Stubby" is available in Australia's Northern Territory. The Darwin Stubby was first introduced in April 1958 with an 80-imperial-fluid-ounce (2,270 ml; 76.9 U.S. fl oz) capacity.

De Nederlandse Bierfles (pijpje)

Two pijpjes.

Most beer producers in the Netherlands sell their beers in a 300 ml (10.6 imp fl oz; 10.1 U.S. fl oz) bottle called De Nederlandse Bierfles. De Nederlandse Bierfles is more commonly known as pijpje (little pipe) and carries a 10-cent deposit.

Britain

Through the latter part of the 20th century, most British brewers used a standard design of bottle, known as the London Brewers' Standard. This was in brown glass, with a conical medium neck in the pint and with a rounded shoulder in the half-pint and nip sizes. Pints (568 mL) and half-pints (284 mL) were the most common, but some brewers also bottled in nip (1/3-pint) and quart (2-pint) sizes. It was for example mostly barley wines that were bottled in nips, and Midlands breweries such as Shipstone of Nottingham that bottled in quarts. This standardisation simplified the automation of bottling and made it easier for customers to recycle bottles as they were interchangeable. They carried a deposit charge, which in the 1980s rose to 7 pence for a pint and 5 pence for a half-pint. Some brewers however used individual bottle designs: among these were Samuel Smith, which used an embossed clear bottle, and Scottish and Newcastle, which used a clear bottle for their Newcastle Brown Ale (both designs survive in the 500 mL size today). Other brewers such as Timothy Taylor had used their own embossed bottles and rare examples continud to be reused into the 1980s. At around the turn of the 21st century the industry turned away from refillable bottles and UK beer bottles are now all one-trip, and most are 330ml in volume.

Longneck, Industry Standard Bottle (ISB) or North American longneck

In USA large bottles are 22 U.S. fl oz (650.6 ml; 22.9 imp fl oz) (colloquially called a "bomber"); the European standard large bottle is 750-milliliter (25 U.S. fl oz; 26 imp fl oz) (in South Africa referred to as a "quart")

A North American longneck is a type of beer bottle with a long neck. It is known as the standard longneck bottle or industry standard bottle (ISB). The ISB longnecks have a uniform capacity, height, weight and diameter and can be reused on average 16 times. The long neck offers a long cushion of air to absorb the pressure of carbonation to reduce the risk of exploding. The longneck also provides a handle for drinking directly from the bottle without transferring body heat to the beer from one's hand. The US ISB longneck is 355 ml (12.0 U.S. fl oz). In Canada, in 1992, the large breweries agreed to all use a 341 mL longneck bottle of standard design (named AT2), thus replacing the traditional stubby bottle and an assortment of brewery-specific long-necks which had come into use in the mid-1980s. In Australia the term longneck is applied to bottles of 700-750 mL capacity.

Large bottles

40-oz bottle (right) compared to a 12-oz bottle.

In the United States, large bottles are 22 U.S. fl oz (650.6 ml; 22.9 imp fl oz) (colloquially called a "rocket" or "bomber" ); the European standard large bottle is 750-milliliter (25.4 U.S. fl oz; 26.4 imp fl oz) (in South Africa and Canada referred to as a "quart")

Forty

A forty is American slang for a 40-U.S.-fluid-ounce (1,182.9 ml; 41.6 imp fl oz) bottle commonly used for cheaper varieties of beer and of malt liquor.

Growler

Growler, photographed near Portland, with the Columbia Gorge in the background. Many pacific northwest microbreweries offer refillable growlers bottles for sale on-site, typically in the $5 to $7 range as an empty bottle.

A growler is a glass or ceramic jug with a capacity of 0.5 US gallons (1,900 ml) used to transport draft beer in Australia, the United States and Canada. They are commonly sold at breweries and brewpubs as a means to sell take-out beer. The exploding growth of craft breweries and the growing popularity of home brewing has also led to an emerging market for the sale of collectible growlers.

Growlers are generally made of glass and have either a screw-on cap or a hinged porcelain gasket cap, which can provide freshness for a week or more. A properly sealed growler will hold carbonation indefinitely and will store beer like any other sanitized bottle. Some growler caps are equipped with valves to allow replacement of CO₂ lost while racking. The modern glass growler was first introduced by Charlie and Ernie Otto of Otto Brother's Brewing Company in 1989.

While 64 oz (0.5 gallons) is the most popular growler size, growlers are commonly found in 32 oz, 128 oz, 1 L and 2 L sizes as well. The two most popular colors for growlers are amber (a brownish hue) or clear (often referred to as "flint"). Clear growlers are often 25% - 35% cheaper per unit than their amber counterparts. Glass handles are the most common type of handle for growlers, although metal handles (with more ornate designs) can also be found. Some growlers do not have handles – this is especially common with growlers smaller than 64 oz. that have Grolsch-style flip-tops.

The term likely dates back to the late 19th century when fresh beer was carried from the local pub to one's home by means of a small galvanized pail. It is claimed the sound that the CO₂ made when it escaped from the lid as the beer sloshed around sounded like a growl.

Small bottles

Darwin Stubby

There are also smaller bottles, called "ponies" (not to be confused with a pony keg), "nips" and other names. Beers that come in small bottles include Corona (labeled as Coronita), Rolling Rock, Heineken, and Bud Light "Limeys."

Australia's "Darwin Stubby"

The 2.25-litre Darwin Stubby has an iconic, if kitsch status in Australian folklore.

Caguama bottles

In Mexico, "caguama" is a popular name for a 940 ml (33.1 imp fl oz; 31.8 U.S. fl oz) beer bottle. The Mexican beer brands which are sold in these bottles include Tecate, Carta Blanca, Sol, Indio, Victoria, Corona Familiar and Pacífico. The name of the bottle refers to the Loggerhead sea turtle that is called in Spanish "caguama". . There is a bigger size of beer bottles that are called "super caguama" or "caguamon".

Closure

A beugel type bottle

Bottled beer is sold with several types of bottle cap, but most often with crown corks. Some beers (for example Grolsch) are sold in "beugel" style bottles, known as "swing top" in some English speaking countries and as "lightning stoppers" in Australia, presumably because they could be opened and closed easily. These bottles were superseded by the crown cork at the end of the 19th century, but survive in premium markets as nostalgic items.

Use as weapons

Beer bottles are sometimes used as makeshift clubs, for instance in bar fights. Pathologists determined in 2009 that beer bottles are strong enough to crack human skulls, which requires an impact energy of between 14 and 70 joules, depending on the location. Empty beer bottles shatter at 40 joules, while full bottles shatter at only 30 joules because of the pressure of the carbonated beer inside the bottle. While it takes less energy to break a full beer bottle, the extra mass in a full bottle will impart more damage. A test performed by the Mythbusters showed that full bottles are significantly more dangerous than empty bottles. Full bottles inflict more damage in terms of concussion and skull fracture; however, both full and empty bottles do the same amount of damage in scalp lacerations.

For this reason, long-neck beer bottles have been banned in some places, such as Alice Springs, Australia.

Lightstruck beer

Lightstruck, or "skunked" or "skunky", beer has been exposed to ultraviolet and visible light. The light causes riboflavin to react with and break down isohumulones, a molecule that contributes to the bitterness of the beer and is derived from the hops. The resulting molecule, 3-methylbut-2-ene-1-thiol, is very similar chemically and in odour to the musk-borne mercaptans that are a skunk's natural defences.

In some cases, such as Miller High Life, a hop extract that does not have isohumulones is used to bitter the beer so it cannot be "lightstruck". A dark brown glass bottle gives some protection to the beer, but green and clear glass bottles offer virtually no protection at all.

There are also other solutions available to improve beer bottled in clear and green glass from becoming skunked or light-struck. There are specialty coatings that can be baked into the glass and offer additional protection from UV light.

See also

• Aluminum bottle
• Aluminum can
• Beer in Australia
• Beverage can
• Box wine
• Container-deposit legislation
• Glass container industry
• Widget (beer)
• Wine bottle

Further reading

• Colin S. Burns, Arne Heyeric, Malcolm D. E. Forbes, (2001) "Mechanism for Formation of the Lightstruck Flavor in Beer Revealed by Time-Resolved Electron Paramagnetic Resonance"
• Richard Pozdrik, Felicity A. Roddick, Peter J. Rogers, and Thang Nguyen, (2006) "Spectrophotometric Method for Exploring 3-Methyl-2-butene-1-thiol (MBT) Formation in Lager"

External links

• Historic beer bottles
• Article on stubbies which mentions the newer longnecks.
• rec.food.drink.beer FAQ
• Curious Cook - In the dark: olive oil, milk, butter, and beer
• An Example of an American Micro Brew Beer Bottle
• "The New Old Way to Tote Your Beer" by Robert Simonson, the New York Times