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]

(Sorry: brushed some unknown key combination by mistake and sent
before finishing. Try again.)

I can't remember the last time I saw a glass beer or cider bottle
bigger than one pint on a British supermarket shelf: the big sizes
have been put up in plastic for years.

I gave away my glass beer bottles to a more conservative friend about
ten years ago, and have happily used old plastic pop and water bottles
as well as beer bottles. They're easy to clean with household bleach,
easy to cap, and I've never had a burst -- I chuck them away when I
feel like it, usually after about four trips, I suppose. Not very
environmentally correct, I know; but at least they get re-used a few
times, which they wouldn't otherwise. Glass feels a lot nicer, though;
and of course you need it for wine.

Mike.