Can We Bottle This?

A bottle of Belgian beer somehow feels right.

Brown glass, a handsome label, perhaps a cork and cage, or the satisfying pop of a crown cap. Yet cans seem to be becoming an increasingly common vessel for beer. Is there a reason? Is one better than the other? Is one simply more appropriate for particular beer styles?

What's really going on here?

Bottle or can?

The first job of either container is not to look attractive. It is to deliver the beer in the condition its brewer intended.

Two particular enemies are light and oxygen. Light can react with hop compounds and produce the unpleasant aroma usually described as “lightstruck” or “skunky”. Oxygen introduced during or after packaging can gradually dull flavours and aromas, making beer taste stale. Brewers therefore pay considerable attention to controlling oxygen during packaging.

A properly sealed can has some obvious advantages. It admits no light at all, is light to transport, chills quickly and provides an excellent barrier between the beer and the outside world. That can make it particularly attractive for beers whose fresh, delicate character matters.

Which is how I recently found myself being politely informed by Brouwerij De Brabandere that my preference for Bavik Super Pils in a bottle rather than a can wasn't necessarily doing the pils any favours. Advice I now graciously accept!

Bottles nevertheless remain excellent beer containers, and Belgian brewing has particularly strong historical and cultural ties to them. The choice also depends on the brewery: its packaging equipment, production volumes, distribution, costs, environmental considerations and, not insignificantly, what customers expect.

There isn't one universally superior package. Even cans require careful filling and correctly formed seams, and the beer itself must be compatible with the can and its internal coating.

Why brown bottles?

Beer bottles aren't different colours purely for decoration.

Brown glass provides very good protection against the wavelengths of light that can damage beer. Clear glass does not. That means beer in a clear bottle is considerably more vulnerable to becoming lightstruck if it is exposed to strong light.

So why use clear glass at all? Tradition and brand identity matter too. Some beer brands have become almost inseparable from the appearance of their bottles. Protecting the beer is important, but breweries also have products that drinkers need to recognise.

Whatever its colour, keeping bottled beer away from strong light remains a good idea.

And why all those different shapes?

Walk along a Belgian beer aisle and you'll find long-necked bottles, short squat ones, elegant 75cl bottles, heavy bottles designed to withstand considerable internal pressure, and plenty in between.

Some differences are practical. Bottle size, glass weight, pressure resistance, compatibility with filling lines and suitability for return-and-reuse systems all matter. Highly carbonated or refermented beers need packaging capable of safely containing the pressure inside.

But not every curve has a brewing purpose. Bottle shapes also reflect manufacturing standards, brewery history and branding. A distinctive bottle can become almost as recognisable as the label attached to it.

So the shape can tell us something, but not necessarily about the beer style inside.

When the beer keeps brewing

For some Belgian beers, bottling isn't simply the final act of putting finished beer into a container.

A brewer may add yeast and fermentable sugar before bottling, allowing a controlled secondary fermentation to take place inside the sealed bottle. This produces carbon dioxide naturally, can contribute to the beer's development and leaves the familiar layer of yeast sediment found in many bottle-conditioned beers.

Orval provides a particularly clear example. Before bottling, the brewery adds fresh yeast and liquid candi sugar; the bottled beer then spends around three to five weeks refermenting under controlled conditions.

That doesn't mean refermentation somehow requires glass. Beer can be conditioned in cans too. What matters is that the brewer understands and controls the fermentation and uses a package designed to withstand the resulting pressure. Uncontrolled refermentation is quite another matter: too much pressure can cause either a bottle or a can to fail.

For Belgian beer, though, bottle refermentation has become part of the production and identity of many familiar beers. Here the bottle isn't merely packaging. For a while longer, it remains part of the brewery.

So, can we bottle this?

Of course.

But sometimes we can can it too.

The bottle brings tradition, presentation and, in some beers, a place for refermentation and maturation. The can offers superb protection from light, low weight and excellent potential for keeping fresh beer fresh. Neither automatically tells us whether the beer inside is good.

And once we open either one, its principal job is over. The beer passes into the vessel we inevitably find rather more interesting.

Although even a beer glass needs to know its place. As Gruut brewer Annick De Splenter has reminded us elsewhere in the Museum: