Beer – Bottled vs. Canned, Wine – Corks vs. Screw Tops

These kind of head-to-head match-ups are what keep us up at night, right?

In a previous post (see link below), I discussed the topic of how the cost of wine can add up to a significant sum over the years. Furthermore, I discussed that if you are smart in choosing low-priced wine, it can result in large savings over the years.

As a continuation to discussing the various financial impacts that our choice of ethanol containing beverages present, I wanted to investigate two topics that I occasionally ponder when drinking wine or beer.

Question 1 – Does bottling beer or canning beer make the drink taste better?

Until recently, I believed that all high-quality, more expensive beer was packaged in to bottles (and that only cheap beer was canned).

However, when I bought a case of Royal Weisse wheat beer from Sly Fox Brewery in Royersford, PA (it is a microbrewery that brews their own high-quality beer) about a month ago, the case consisted of 24 aluminum cans of beer instead of 24 glass bottles.

This is when I began to think that maybe, there is actually an advantage to canning beer vs. bottling it.

After doing a little research online, I found the following link, which I felt was helpful to identify the following plus’s and minus’s of bottling vs. canned beer.

Drinkfocus.com – Comparison of Different Presentations of Beer

Bottled Beer

• Has a shelf life of about 3 months.
• Have undergone rapid heat treatment of pasteurization.
• Light can penetrate bottle and cause oxidation of the beer if stored for long period of time.

Canned Beer

• Although not affected by exposure to sunlight, canned beer can still be spoiled by heat exposure.
• Canned beer can pick up a bad taste from the aluminum particles of the can in which it is stored.
• Is filtered and then heat treated by pasteurization after it is canned.

Bottom Line

• For me, the bottom line is that canning is better for beer that has to travel long distances to reach you (aka beer from national companies – Bud Light, Heineken, etc) due to it being resistant to oxidation by sunlight and bottling is better for beer that is purchased from local breweries.

Question 2 – Does a cork or screw top bottle make wine taste better?

As most people know, many less expensive wines these days are steering away from the use of corks to cap the bottles and are employing metal screw-top caps instead.

It is a common preconceived notion that these screw caps do not retain the flavor of the wine as effectively as the corks do. However, is there any proof to whether one capping method or the other preserves flavor better?

After searching for several minutes on Google, I came across the website below.

Lovetoknow.com – Wine Bottle Closures

As you can see from the article, screw top wine closures have the following benefits over traditional corks.

• Create an air-tight seal so as to not allow oxidation to occur in the wine bottle.
• Eliminate the occurrence of wine getting spoiled by bad corks.
• Easier to open. No corkscrew needed.
• Works with all types of wine.