Abhimanyu Gupta
Prof. Ted Ganster
HSPT 160, Beers of the World
December 10, 2018
Beer Packaging
Kegs, Bottles and Cans
In 2016, more than 185 million kiloliters of beer was consumed world wide. And to fulfill this level of consumption, more than 190 million kiloliters of beer was produced in 2017. A little over a century ago almost all beer was draft beer, but today nearly 90% of the beer that is consumed in the United States is packaged either in cans or bottles. This change in beer consumption is due to the the advancements in beer packaging technology. The three basic containers used to package beer today are kegs, bottles and cans.
Kegs – A keg is just a modern barrel, made from rolling and welding a sheet of stainless steel together and stamped out steel plates are welded at the top and bottom. It is important for the material of choice to be smooth as rough surfaces can hold bacteria which would ruin perfectly good beer. The steel that is used to make kegs is an alloy of manganese, nickel and chromium amongst other metals. It is also very important for the keg to be airtight as beer is naturally carbonated from the fermentation process. The top of the keg has a long metal tube (spear) that goes all the way to the bottom of the keg, through which the beer travels out of the tap.
Kegs are completely reusable, require no caps and are very durable. Due to the metal body, a keg is completely opaque and blocks all light, protecting the beer from one of its greatest enemies – light – the other two being age and high temperature.
Kegs are mainly used for draught beer at bars, as the size and equipment required makes it inconvenient for people to carry them around. The kegs are connected to a gas tank through a double gauge regulator and coupler which connects to a tap. When the tap is pushed the gas creates pressure inside the keg, this pushes the beer up though the sphere and out of the tap. The amount of pressure that had to be maintained depends on the size of keg and type of beer being served. Kegs come in multiple sizes, 1/2 barrel or 15.5 gallons all the way down to the new 5 liter Heineken mini kegs that are meant for personal use. This innovation came about with the growth of craft beers in recent years and the increase in demand for draught beer.
Bottles – Glass bottles have been used to store beer for more than the past 400 years. Historically the beer bottles have been made using glass, and are continued to be made the same way. In the early days this was done as glass could be easily molded, would not react to the beer (unlike some metals) and would keep the beer untouched from the outside world as it has very low permeability. Today, even with the availability of plastics, that exhibit similar properties along with the benefits of being light in weight and ease to work with, we continue to use glass as our choice for making bottles. This is done because plastics are more permeable to oxygen and carbon dioxide. Another advantage of using glass is that its completely taste neutral and would not release any chemicals into the beer unlike plastics. Glass bottles used to store beer are usually colored brown, blue and in some cases even green this is done because light is one of the biggest enemies of beer, the other two being temperature and age. The brown color of beer bottles helps in screening out harmful ultraviolet rays which might spoil the beer and make the beer smell like skunk.
Over the years, beer bottle only seems to have changed in shape but there have been some important developments over the years. Today we can see a lot of beer bottles with a screw cap, this was first invented in 1870 by Henry Barrett. Louis Pasteur discovered a process that we now know as pasteurization, this preserves the beer for longer in glass bottles and helps in increasing its shelf life. Manufacturers in the packaging industry are also working on developing a coating for plastic bottles that would solves the problem of plastic bottles being permeable and losing carbonation. This means that we could see plastic bottles being used for beer instead of glass. This would also reduce the material and shipping costs along with saving energy in recycling.
Cans – Beer cans are simply, a thin layer of aluminum, shaped into a cylinder that’s easy to hold and that can be highly pressurized keeping the beverage safely locked away until we crack it open and sip the delicious fresh beer that has been perfectly preserved.
Brewers only had a few options for packaging beer until the 1930s, barrels, kegs and bottles, but all of them came with their own limitations. Bottles were portable and cheap, but they were relatively fragile and couldn’t be recycled back in the early 1900s. Barrels and kegs were durable, reusable and held a large volume of beer at once but were relatively expensive and were not convenient for a small drinking session. In the early 1900s brewers started to look for a way to can beers. But it was not until 1933, just months before probation was repealed a working beer can was invented. A beer can officially hit the markets on January of 1935, when The Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company of Newark, NJ launched the canned versions of Krueger’s Finest Beer and Krueger’s Cream Ale. There have been various versions of the cans since, and there have been a few milestones.
The flat top style – This is the original Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company’s steel can. Due to the use of steel, these cans were bulky, and the original dimensions were 5 1/2″ in length, 3/4″ in width, 1/8″ in thickness and weighed up to 4 ounces. These cans stayed in the market until the 1970s.
The cone top style – This can got its name from the funnel like top. G. Heilemann Brewing Company of La Crosse, WI was the first company to use and market them in September of 1935, the same year the flat top cans entered the market. These cans attracted the attentions of smaller brewing companies as these funnel topped cans could be packed on the pre-established bottling lines. There were four types of cone top cans. Low profile – with a low neck of the cone top, high profile – with a slightly longer neck of the cone top, J-spout – named for its neck that resembled the letter ‘j’ and Crowntainer – built with a one-piece body unlike the other three. By 1960, cone-top cans were eliminated from the market as the big name companies drove the smaller breweries out of the market.
Pull tab style – First introduces to the market in 1963 by The Pittsburgh Brewing Company, changed the market forever. Within two years of being introduced to the market nearly 75% of all beer cans produced had a pull tab on them. They made a dramatic change as no tools were required to open a beer can anymore, all a consumer had to do was to pull the tab and he/she could enjoy the refreshing beverage. But it did not dominate the market for too long as the stay tab was introduced in the mid 1970s.
Stay tab style – First introduced by Falls City Brewing Company of Louisville, KY in 1975, the stay tab style is the predecessor to the modern beer can. It was a revolution as the pull tab was a disaster for the environment and the society, as pets and other animals would die by injecting the tabs, people would cut their feet by tapping on them at the beach, and garbage disposals would be damaged. The stay tab solved this problem as the tabs did not have to be tossed away and stayed not the can. Today nearly all canned carbonated drinks are packaged with stay tabs.
Canned beers have had a few twists and turns throughout its history, it developed from a revolutionary new way to consume a beverage to a symbol of low cost drinking to a resurgence in popularity as craft brewers have embraced them.
Conclusion – The way people consume beer has come a long way in the last century. With the advancements in production lines, bottle and can technology, beers have become available outside the taverns and tap rooms, and the future for beer packaging also seems very bright. Further developments in packaging and material sciences for plastic bottles would make it possible for packaging beer in plastic bottles in the future, making logistics more cost effective. As with the rise of craft breweries and consumer’s developing tastes we have seen some new innovations like the new mini kegs and advanced can and bottle art. Who knows what the future holds for beer packaging in the future, some day we might see the first space beer as the packaging industry advances.
References
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