Thursday, April 26, 2012

Canundrum-Part 2: Jack Attack

I had to write a post about this.

Jack Box has been one of my most devoted readers for almost as long as drinkdrank has been kicking. He regularly comments on posts and I can honestly say: Jack loves beer. Jack loves beer so much, he took my idea to compare canned versus bottled beer, and ran with it. In fact, I'd say he ran with it like Forrest freakin' Gump. Jack took the initiative and selected a number of canned and bottled beers; employed his own "interactive sippy tests"; and then reported back the results! I think we've found drinkdrank's first contributing editor. Although I use the term "editor" loosely, because—as I'm sure you've come to realize—there is very little editing being done here.

Life is like a bottle of beer—you
never now what your going to get.
In any case, I wanted to highlight Jack's efforts, so I've complied all of his comments and experiments on bottle versus canned beer into one post—so here goes:

Jack R., April 4, 2012

I have long held a untested belief that the keg [draught] version of a beer is better than the same beer bottled. With growler fills, this would not be too hard to test. Someday I will. To your conclusion that: the bottled version of a beer is better than the same beer canned. To ascertain if everyone could test this, I used the Brewers association list of the Top 50 Craft Brewers [by volume produced, 2011] and the CraftCans.com online database. Excluding the all canned Oskar Blues, I found 14 of the top 50 Craft breweries produce 46 beers; albeit, I am not yet sure all 46 have bottled version. I will answer that question later.

Regardless of the answer, it should not be hard to find test cases. I will undertake to do so. However, my test method differs from your stated test; i.e., I like to compare beers in an repetitive side by side, sippy test. I open two [or more] beer; pour about 7 ozs of each beer in a glasses; then sample back and forth between the beers, moving the preferred beer to the left. My son and I tested five Oregon pilsner once; it was good fun and established the tops slots in my Pilsner leader board.

On a related note, in a recent
Beervana post, Thursday, 29 Mar 2012, Retro Gone Too Far, Jeff Alworth opined that craft breweries can because canning is cheaper than bottling and then argue to merits of cans v. bottles—i.e, the choice to can [v. bottle] is cost driven. In future, as the opportunity arises, I will ask brewery employees. It will be interesting to see if the new, East Coast, Sierra Nevada and New Belgium plants bottle.

April 7, 2012

I performed my interactive sippy test with New Belgium Brewing Co., Ranger IPA; one bottle and one can. The can was marked for use by June 2012. The marking on the bottle was illegible; but, the brewery is only 55 miles from the liquor store and the liquor store does a big volume; ergo, I take both to be fresh.

Initially, I perceived a slight difference between the mouth feel of the canned and bottled beer; the canned beer seemed smoother, ya' know, slightly maltier. I let the beers sit for ~half an hour and retested, at which time, I perceived less of a difference.

I will select a pair of non-IPA and retest.



April 9, 2012

Today I met with a nano-brew brewer, Tom Horst, Crystal Springs Brewing Co., 100 barrels in 2011. I asked "Why can? Is it merely because it is cheaper?"

Tom said: It is cheaper; but, it is really about preserving the beer.

I told him about my NBBC Ranger IPA test. He said, buy two similar age beers, put the on the shelf for a month, and then conduct your sippy test. Tom believes, after 04-06 weeks, a bottled beer will exhibit degradation; a canned beer, not.

I will give it a go.



April 11, 2012

Another can v. bottle test; New Belgium Sunshine Wheat Ale. Both reported 'Best before 01 July 2012'. Not much taste to work with. A Colorado Front Range Americanized witbier. Regardless, as before: I preferred the canned beer. My wife did too. I like the mouth feel better; I take it to be more malty; perhaps not, I do not claim to be a qualified beer judge. The NBBC website reports tastes/aromas: coriander and orange peel tartness wit apple and honey tones. My strongest impression was peppery. A Google search associates peppery more with NBBC Mothership Wit Organic Wheat Ale.

I have two more can/bottle pairs to test. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Boulder Beer Co. Hazed and Confused Dry-Hopped Pale Ale.



April 16, 2012

I performed my interactive sippy test with Boulder Beer-Hazed and Confused, unfiltered, dry-hopped [Crystal and Centennial] amber ale; one bottle and one can.

The bottle was marked for use by 07 June 2012. There was not marking on the can; but, the brewery is only 2.5 miles from the liquor store and the liquor store does a big volume; ergo, I take both to be fresh.

Again, third time, I perceived a slight difference between the mouth feel of the canned and bottled beer; the canned beer seemed smoother, ya' know, slightly maltier.

Bottom line: 3 for 3, I prefer the canned beer over the bottled beer.



April 18, 2012

I performed my interactive sippy test with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale; one bottle and one can. The bottle was packaged 53 days ago; the can, 58 days. Both nominal 08 weeks plus/minus epsilon before consumed. Again, after about half an hour the difference seemed diminished.

For the fourth time, I perceived a difference between the mouth feel of the canned and bottled beer; the canned beer seemed smoother, richer, maltier. Interestingly, to me, 08 weeks age produced no noticeable degradation in the bottled v. canned beer, to me.

Bottom line: 4 for 4, I prefer the canned beer over the bottled beer.




As much as I'm impressed with Jack's analysis (not to mention the fact that he's like a machine when it comes to this stuff)what really is special to me is that he not only took the time to go through all of the rigamaroll to do the tests, but he then wrote to me about it. Me—dumb old me. I'm honestly flattered by his efforts.

So, to Jack I say: Thank you for reading; thank you for commenting; and thank you for loving beer.  

2 comments:

  1. Great Work! Typically when I'm sipping on a canned beer it's the post-garage tinkering/lawn mowing/NASCAR watching variety. I'm glad someone took the time to do the legwork on different and more substantive beer brands that just happen to be in cans. Next time I'm in the bev center I will search out some good cans and test the theory myself!

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  2. Jack, here. A friend who operates Wandering Aengus Ciderworks in Salem, Ore., commented that with bottled beverage, you need to leave some head space [which would contain O2 unless you took extreme measures] where with canned beverage, you can top the container. Thus, you almost ensure some O2 degradation is time. Plus, there is the issue of the bottle cap not being completely gas tight.

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