Why is beer rarely bottled in plastic?

We often see coke or soft drinks in plastic bottles, but why don't we see beer in plastic bottles?

Plastic is a material that has a huge impact on our lives. It is cheap, can be shaped into any shape and most importantly, it is easily recycled. But why don’t we use plastic bottles to store beer? Is it because of aesthetics? Taste? Or is there something else?

It may surprise many people that beer is actually still bottled in plastic bottles in some countries, such as the UK. Here, plastic beer bottles are often seen at festivals and events. For example, at the 2012 London Olympics, the biggest beverage sponsor, Heineken, produced around a million plastic beer bottles just for the occasion. Although the company explained that this was for environmental reasons, it is clear that the main purpose was for safety reasons. At events where thousands of people from different cultures attend, the alcohol and competition can become dangerous when combined with broken glass.

So why isn’t this type of beer bottle more widely used? One of the most likely answers is that plastic affects the taste of beer. Plastic is a more porous material than glass, which makes beer taste “flatter” when stored in a plastic bottle than a glass one because the gas in the beverage evaporates more easily.

Another advantage of glass is that it has virtually no effect on taste because it is chemically inert (does not react chemically with the contents). On the other hand, plastic contains many chemicals that can dissolve into beer and affect the taste and even the quality of the drink. For example, the plastic commonly used to make bottles for soft drinks, Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), will release a toxic element called Antimony (Sb) into the drink. When stored at room temperature or lower, the amount of antimony emitted from these plastic bottles is negligible. But the concentration of antimony increases with temperature, so if stored in a warehouse for several summer months, the amount of antimony in the drink can increase to harmful levels, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

As for aluminum, like glass, it is completely impermeable, making it ideal for storing beer. But unlike plastic, the inside of aluminum cans is coated with a special polymer that prevents aluminum from leaching into the beverage, making them much safer. Additionally, unlike the other two materials, aluminum is completely light-resistant, allowing the beverage to be stored in aluminum cans better than other types of bottles.

In fact, colored glass bottles have been used to store beer because they block out light. But it’s hard to do the same with plastic, because the chemicals added to block out light make the material harder to recycle than regular plastic.

Another problem with plastic bottles is that they can’t withstand the sterilization process that most beers go through. After being brewed and bottled, beer is usually put through a machine that sprays boiling water to kill any bacteria that may still be alive after fermentation. This is both a safety measure and a way to extend the shelf life of the beer. And while glass bottles and aluminum cans can easily withstand this process, plastic can’t. This means either skipping the sterilization process or choosing a more durable plastic, which will cost more.

There may still be brewers somewhere trying to get plastic bottles into widespread use, while also trying to convince consumers to change their habits (a near-impossible task). But for the foreseeable future at least, glass bottles and aluminum cans will still dominate the beer industry worldwide.

According to Vnreview