Beer bottle
Such designs vary greatly in size and shape, but the glass commonly is brown or green to reduce spoilage from light, especially ultraviolet.
[1] The most widely established alternatives to glass containers for beer in retail sales are beverage cans and aluminium bottles; for larger volumes kegs are in common use.
The process is typically as follows: Many smaller breweries send their bulk beer to large facilities for contract bottling—though some will bottle by hand.
The steinie was introduced in the 1930s by Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company and derived their name from their similarity to the shape of a beer stein, which was emphasized in marketing.
Some of the expected advantages of stubby bottles are: ease of handling; less breakage; lighter in weight; less storage space; and lower center of gravity.
Standard SP Lager from Papua New Guinea and Victoria Bitter in Australia,[5] are some of the few beers still sold in 12oz neckless stubbies.
The U.S. steinie shape dominates for small beer bottles the world over, in sizes from half-pint to the European 500ml.
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.
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.
Its official name is Bruin Nederlands Retour CBK-fles (Brown Dutch Return CBK Bottle), with CBK standing for Centraal Brouwerij Kantoor, the former name of the Dutch trade association of larger breweries, Nederlandse Brouwers.
At any given time, an estimated 2 billion beer bottles are in circulation in Germany, each of which sees an average of 36 reuses.
[9] Many smaller, traditional breweries have retained the Euro bottle as part of their corporate identity, particularly Augustiner, Tegernseer, and Schlenkerla.
The ISB longnecks have a uniform capacity, height, weight and diameter and can be reused on average 16 times.
In South Africa they are referred to as a "quart"; in Australia they are known colloquially as a "longneck","king brown", "tallie", "largie" or simply a "bottle".
A growler (/ˈɡraʊlər/) is a glass, ceramic, or stainless steel jug used to transport draught beer in the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil and other countries.
There are also smaller bottles, called nips,[11] ponies (United States), cuartitos (Mexico, "small fourth", in reference to the larger 355 mL media "half"), throwdowns or grenades (Australia), among other names.
Other major brands, such as Budweiser and Coors, are also regionally available in 7 oz bottles; these were introduced in the early 1970s, following the introduction of the size for Miller High Life.
The beer brands that are sold in these bottles include Tecate, Carta Blanca, Sol, Indio, Victoria, Corona Familiar and Pacífico.
Some beers (for example Grolsch) are sold in "beugel" style bottles, known as "flip-top" or "swing top" in some English speaking countries.
These closures were largely superseded by the crown cap at the end of the 19th century, but survive in some styles, typically Lambic ales.
Bottle-conditioned beers may be either filled unfiltered direct from the fermentation or conditioning tank, or filtered and then reseeded with yeast.
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.
The light causes riboflavin to react with and break down isohumulones, chemicals that contribute to the bitterness of the beer and are derived from the hops.
A molecule resulting from a subsequent chain of reactions, prenylthiol, is very similar chemically and in odour to the musk-borne mercaptans that are a skunk's natural defences.
[31] In some cases, such as Miller High Life, a hops extract that does not have isohumulones is used to bitter the beer so it cannot be "lightstruck".
