John Munn <tetnanger@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<XljVa.511$I_3.198@twister.nyroc.rr.com>...[color=blue]
> Frogleg wrote:[color=green]
> >
> > .....cut.... Why *isn't* beer packaged in plastic bottles?[/color]
>
>
> There are a few reasons why beer in plastic is only now being marketed.
> One reason is that many plastics are permeable to oxygen. Special
> plastics are used to exclude oxygen from traveling through the plastic
> and I guess that soda was not as sensitive to oxygen degradation as
> beers. Oxygen barrier plastics have been around for a number of years
> but they are relatively new on the market.
>
> A second reason would be tradition. It's difficult to change when the
> equipment and process is all set up... and it's been that way for a
> hundred years and and we've always done it this way...don't fix it if it
> ain't broke.
>
> And a third reason I can think of is the economic cost to change over to
> a new process/system.[/color]

I don't remember the last time I saw a glass bottle of beer or cider
bigger than one pint on British supermarket shelf.