This is Part 11 of The Story of Beer, our journey through the people, ingredients, discoveries, and traditions that put beer in our glass.

For most of beer’s history, nobody had to decide between cans and bottles.

Modern packaging changed beer enormously.

It allowed beer to travel farther, stay fresh longer, and reach drinkers in places far removed from the brewery.

And along the way, brewers discovered that the container matters more than you might think.

Beer on Draught

One of the most familiar ways to enjoy beer is draught beer served from a keg.

The keg is pressurized, usually with carbon dioxide, which moves the beer through a line and out of the tap.

Some beers use a mixture containing nitrogen, which creates smaller bubbles and the creamy head associated with beers such as Guinness.

The Guinness Widget

In the 1980s, Guinness introduced an ingenious way to reproduce some of that draught character in a can.

The widget is a small device inside the package that helps release nitrogen when the can is opened.

That creates the familiar cascading bubbles and dense head.

It’s one of those inventions you probably don’t think about while drinking the beer.

Which means it’s doing its job.

Cask Ale Is Different

Traditional cask conditioned beer is handled differently from ordinary keg beer.

The beer continues conditioning in the cask from which it will eventually be served.

In a pub, the cask is positioned, vented, tapped, allowed to settle, and then served either through a hand pump or by gravity.

CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, helped popularize the term real ale for beer brewed and served in this traditional manner.

Why Brown Bottles?

Light can damage beer and create the unpleasant aroma commonly described as “skunky.”

Brown glass offers good protection from damaging light.

In 1912, the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company introduced brown bottles as a way of protecting beer quality, and brown glass became widely used throughout the industry.

Don’t Underestimate the Can

Beer cans weren’t always treated with much respect.

For years they became closely associated with inexpensive mass produced beer.

But cans have some genuine advantages.

They block light completely.

They seal well.

They’re relatively easy to transport.

Modern craft breweries helped change perceptions of canned beer, but the container’s practical advantages were there all along.

Bottle Conditioned Beer

Some beer contains yeast in the bottle and continues conditioning after packaging.

That can leave sediment at the bottom.

Depending on the beer, drinkers may pour carefully and leave the sediment behind or intentionally incorporate some of it.

Wheat beers are one example where swirling the remaining beer to pick up yeast sediment is sometimes part of the serving tradition.

Does the Glass Matter?

It can.

Different glass shapes affect aroma, carbonation, foam, and how the beer reaches your mouth.

Breweries have created specialized glasses for particular styles and individual beers.

But don’t let glassware anxiety ruin a perfectly good beer.

The proper glass can improve the experience.

The absence of one does not constitute an emergency.

Next Pour

We’ve followed beer from prehistoric fermentation to the modern pint glass.

For our final chapter, we’ll look at how beer became more than a beverage.

It became part of communities, traditions, travel, pubs, festivals, and culture around the world.

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