Three C's of Beer Bottles

Tonight I bottled beer number 74, a stout that I’m hoping will have a smooth, but grainy malt profile. It’s the ninth and last brew I’ll finish in 2011. Moment of silence. . .  Now continue reading.

There are really only two ways the homebrewer typically keeps beer: in bottles or in kegs. Each has its advantages and drawbacks. Bottles are convenient units for giving beer away as gifts as well as storing and aging beer (honestly, I’ve never done this. Save aging for wine and baby boomers. Beer should be imbibed!). Kegging carbonates the beer faster, under pressure or using yeast action and bottling sugar like bottlers do. It's also really cool.

I’m a bottler. I don’t buy separate bottles for brewing. Instead I am Earth and finance friendly and I recycle the ones I’ve used or my friends have used (check out this article on how to drink greenly). I clean them, remove the label (if I’m not feeling lazy), sanitize them, and they’re good as new. 

As I was washing bottles this evening, I realized that there were some that I liked better than others. Not all bottles are created equal. Most of my bottle judgmentalism is superficial, but there are bottle characteristics that are important to the beer itself. Let me introduce you to the three C’s of beer bottles.

2 cases of #74 on my kitchen floor

1. Color. Beer bottles should be brown or completely opaque. One of the essential ingredients in beer is the soft leafy cones of my favorite plant, hops (Humulus lupulus). Hops contain lupulin, the bitter flavoring and preservative found in beer. Different styles of beer are brewed with differing amounts of hops, but all hops react the same way when struck by sunlight. Lupulin breaks down into smelly chemicals in the presence of ultraviolet light. This can result in what is lovingly referred to as a “skunked” beer. Dark beers like porters and stouts block out a good amount of light and are not at as much risk from this process, but lighter beers, especially hop-loaded styles like ESBs, Pale Ales and IPAs are more prone to this. Brown bottles block more ultraviolet light than green or clear bottles. I’m not sure why anyone (including Corona and Newcastle) would ever bottle beer in a clear container and encourage people to drink them outside in sunlight soaked locations, like on a beach.
2. Caps. Screw off top bottles are the bane of homebrewers. You can’t get a good seal on a bottle that is designed for a screw off top. The only thing I do with these is return them for the deposit. Maybe I’m a little strange, but I’ve actually NOT purchased good beer because of the screw off top issue. For a few years Sierra Nevada bottled their ales in these types of bottles. When I was given the option to purchase a brew of similar quality, I selected the regular capped brew (I think my choice was Southern Tier Brewing Company in this case). I am glad to report that Sierra Nevada has switched back to regular caps.
3. Contour. We can often recognize a particular brand of beer by the shape of its bottle. Guinness draught. Who doesn’t like curves? Bass. Long neck that smoothly blends into the rest of the bottle. One of my favorite bottle shapes is the one used by St. Peter’s brewery. Old fashioned and solid (unfortunately they are sometimes green). Bottle contour is less about the beer itself and more about the experience of drinking (assuming you are without your trusty pint glass). If it feels right in your hand, you’re more likely to enjoy it. I’m sure Freud would have a field day with this. 

There are many other aspects of bottles that I consider as a home brewer. The glue breweries use to stick on labels (Saranac has notoriously hard to remove labels; Southern Tier and Dogfish Head brews have labels that come off easier). The weight of the bottles (heavier bottles are less likely to break under the capping process). In the end, any vessel that can store and then deliver excellent beer to my palate will do, but sometimes it’s more than just what’s on the inside that counts.