Beer in Aluminum Bottles
 

Beer in Aluminum Bottles on the Way
By CHARLES SHEEHAN, AP

PITTSBURGH (Aug. 24) - How much would you pay for a bottle of beer that stays cold nearly an hour longer? Pittsburgh Brewing Co., maker of Iron City Beer, is asking an additional $1 per case.
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/arti...ws%2e6&cid=842



Is this for sissy's that can't drink a glass bottle beer before it gets warm? LOL ;)

Actually, what do you think? Will you buy it?

Re: Beer in Aluminum Bottles
 

Man I would love to see that up here. Folks in the hunting camps and no-necked, snot nosed, teenagers stick their beer they steal out in the snow to cool. I can see it now, the damn place will look like an anteaters convention with all these folks running around with aluminum containers frozen to their lips.:D

Jack Moroney

This is a bad day for me, I guess. I don't understand. What is the difference from other aluminum containers that beer already comes in? OTOH some people actually can "taste" the metal in cans and prefer glass.

Another of Terry's gems: While on a trip on an LCM in Panama the fish we caught were thrown on top of the beer i9n an ice chest.. Balboa only came in bottles. Without thinking, I took out a bottle of beer, opened it and put it to my lips and consumed a foul amount of fish slime. To this day I pour beer into a glass. That fish slime is still lingering.:D

You have a colorful group in your part of the country Jack. The new aluminum bottles will be great for shooting. This could increase the litter you see in the woods. By the way, where the hell is aluminum being made now? Reynolds Aluminum used to run a no. of big smelters up and down the Columbia River (cheap power) but they all seem to have closed. Aluminum isn't cheap anymore.

Brewmonkey's going to have a heart attack!

Next fad in the beer industry. Remember Keystone's glass lined cans?

Actually though this is a smart move for them just as PET bottles were a few years back. This is a way to get into more venues like arena's and stadium's where bottles are not allowed and cans are not sold or allowed.

I still don't get it!!! What is the difference between an aluminum can and an aluminum bottle???:confused:

LMAO!
 

May be you can still crush it thus, reducing the amount trash you have?

Technology is something else.

Not exactly sure what the major difference will be. I have fired off an email to a few guys who should be in the know on this one.

I remember German Breweries wouldn't "bottle" local beer in cans. They even had wars over the color of the bottles -- green vs. amber.

The difference is that chick in the Australian Beer commercial is going to smoke her globe if she tries to crush that bottle by banging it on her forehead. :D

Jack Moroney

QRQ30-

The AL in the bottle is 3x's thicker... it gives it much more insulating capability compared to a normal al can. It is supposed to keep your Ice cold beverage , colder- longer. This would be better than the plastic bottles they sell down here in stadiums (if it really works).

That is what the article says anyway. I hadn't thought of Brew's idea... very clever and very smart. it could be brought to the beach as well. Down here it is illegal to have glass on the beach.

Does the link I gave not work if you are not an AOL member? :confused:

No Saca, you have to 'sign in' with your AOL ID...so us non-subscribers can't access it.

OOPS...my bad
 

PITTSBURGH (Aug. 24) - How much would you pay for a bottle of beer that stays cold nearly an hour longer? Pittsburgh Brewing Co., maker of Iron City Beer, is asking an additional $1 per case.

The brewery has partnered with Alcoa Inc., the world's largest aluminum maker, to produce aluminum bottles that keep beer colder for as much as 50 minutes longer than a glass bottle, Alcoa officials said.

About 20,000 cases of the new aluminum bottle beer are en route to as many as 28 states and should be on shelves this week, Alcoa and Pittsburgh Brewing said Tuesday.
The bottles have three times the aluminum of a typical beer can. That gives them superior insulation, Alcoa spokesman Kevin Lowery said.

It's not the first time Alcoa has teamed up with the local brewery to put out a new product. In 1962, the two put the first pull-tab beer cans on shelves, freeing beer drinkers of the need to carry openers with them.

"We think it's much better than a can and as good or better than glass," said Joe Piccirilli, vice chairman for Pittsburgh Brewing. "There's no doubt in my mind that this has the same potential as the pull tab we did with Alcoa."

Iron City wants to expand sales. But the aluminum bottle may be more important to Alcoa. The aluminum giant wants to win back a share of the market it lost to beer bottles - both glass and plastic, which are now common at sporting events nationwide.
About 40 percent of all beer consumed comes out of cans, 43 percent from bottles and 8 percent from the tap, according to the Beer Institute, which tracks industry trends. Bottles, however, have gained ground over the past decade.

Plastic bottles make up only 0.5 percent of all beer sales, according to the Beer Institute. But having aluminum bottles at sporting events would introduce the product to thousands, who might buy a case for home.

Pittsburgh Brewing said it won't drop glass bottles or cans from production.

Some people say they can taste the difference between beer in cans and bottles.
Lew Bryson, an author of two books on breweries, said those complaints are psychological, since the aluminum is coated. But, he said, there may be a lingering taste when the seal of an aluminum can is broken.

The aluminum bottle could eliminate that, he said.
One microbrewery based in Missoula, Mont., has been using aluminum bottles. Heineken released a limited edition aluminum bottle last year.

Aluminum bottles also have proven successful for a few breweries in Japan, but Iron City is the first company in North America to ship the bottles nationally, company officials said.
Alcoa and brewery officials say the biggest selling point of the bottle may be its appearance.

Bryson agreed, and said plastic bottles have also been problematic at some bottling plants because they are lighter than glass and can become jumbled.
But he said the advantages may not outweigh the price.

"It seems a bit like an answer in search of a question," he said.

Pittsburgh Brewing said aluminum bottles cost more than twice than glass - about a nickel more per beer - but Alcoa and the brewery said the cost will come down if other beer companies follow suit.

Pittsburgh Brewing, which sells about 6 million cases of beer annually, has opened a six-figure marketing campaign to try to make the idea stick.

"I think in the next 12 to 18 months, more people are going to get into this like we are," said Piccirilli. "We're not kicking the tires."

So how would you open these "Bottles"?

You couldn't have a "flip top" on top, and if you were to put a regular bottle top on that, when you go to open it, once the pressure is released, you'll just twist the 'bottle" top, like wringing a Chicken's neck.