Small Beer Cans - The Latest Thing

imme

Why have small beer cans become such a thing.

In the last while supermarkets and off licences have started selling small beer cans.

They're beers that I'm talking about are hipster beer for the most part, beers that are only available for the past 1-2 years and generally that the extent of their heritage.

Anyway when did small (330ml) beer cans become a thing.

Is there any reason that they're a thing.

Hoboo

They stay cold and fresh till the end. Quite the norm outside Ireland and the UK.

Zaph

The cost of production is higher than that of macro beers due to higher quality ingredients and smaller breweries not being able to enjoy the same economies of scale that Diageo, for example, can avail of. So putting the beers into 500ml cans would drive up the price significantly and reduce the appeal of the beers to many drinkers. However 440ml cans are becoming increasingly popular with craft beer producers, so people are prepared to pay a bit extra for a decent product.

Lewis_Benson

They have been around for a long time....

CiaranMT

330s are already being supplanted by 440s. Another couple of years and we'll see the value segment (4 for €10 etc) be populated by more 440s as young breweries scale up.

330ml is a useful size for high ABV beers so it will still have its place.

St. Lupulin

Better than small 330 ml glass bottles, for so many reasons.

BeerNut

imme wrote: »

Anyway when did small (330ml) beer cans become a thing.

I bought my first tray of them in early 1995, so some time before that.

Mellor

330ml beers have been around decades.
Bud, Heineken, and other mainstream beers sold 330ml cans in 24 can trays 10 can fridge packs. They probably tried every size and pack possible

Tabnabs

Yeah, the rest of the world drinks smaller cans and more of them. There is absolutely nothing new about this, we are just very late in the day in getting used to this size of beer can.

James Bond Junior

I love those small cans, you can have 2 or 3 and not be fuzzy headed the following morning.

Doodah7

I haven't drank a 500 ml can of anything in about 25 years! Beer would be flat, warm and horrible by the time I would get to the end!

Personally, I don't drink craft beer directly from either a can or a bottle. The flavour of the beer can only be enhanced by consuming it from a glass. I would drink a bog standard lager from a bottle on a warm day if there was nothing else available. As for those 'slabs' of lager/stout... not in a million years!

irish_goat

Doodah7 wrote: »

I haven't drank a 500 ml can of anything in about 25 years! Beer would be flat, warm and horrible by the time I would get to the end!

Do you not drink pints either?

rubadub

Mellor wrote: »

330ml beers have been around decades.
Bud, Heineken, and other mainstream beers sold 330ml cans in 24 can trays 10 can fridge packs.

Yeah, used to be popular at christmas time, and back then they were often around the same price per ml. You can still get 330ml cans of the likes of heineken the odd time, but it can be cheaper to by a 500ml can, and I don't even mean per ml.

Some people look at them as being tiny, while they have been drinking cans of coke that size all their life. And they would probably think an old "supercan" of coke is huge.

imme

As I said before I haven't seen them till recently.

The only product I've seen in this format is non big brands beer.

The only breweries that I've seen are the , 'arent't you lucky we're selling you this' type of product.

I haven't seen any 'everyday' beer, for want of a better description, selling in this format.

The price of 330ml does not seem to bear any relation to its size, the size seems to attract a premium.

L1011

330s of the macro beers are the norm on transport trolley services - Irish Rail, airlines etc. Not something you see every day but very common

For the smaller brewers and cost - their have cost bases that are completely out of whack with the macro brewers. Even with the duty rebate (if Irish) they cannot match the pricing of the big boys, particularly slabs.

ShauntaMetzel

We always prefer to buy family packs instead of cans.

BeerNut

imme wrote: »

The only breweries that I've seen are the , 'arent't you lucky we're selling you this' type of product.

I haven't seen any 'everyday' beer, for want of a better description, selling in this format.

Trying to figure this out. In Ireland it's mostly the bigger, more everyday, micros that use 330s: Boyne Brewhouse, O'Hara's, Porterhouse, Rye River (but I'm not sure they still do). And Diageo does the Smithwicks and Open Gate variants in them.

Of the properly small breweries using them you have White Hag (but not always), Black's (but not always), Wicklow Wolf (but not always), Metalman, Rascals and that might be it. Third Barrel did that one imperial stout in 330s but the rest is 440s. YellowBelly switched from 330s to all 440s last year.

Kinnegar, Larkin's, Galway Bay, Wide Street, Whiplash, Lough Gill, Ballykilcavan, Carrig, Eight Degrees, Kildare Brewing and Trouble are all 440s exclusively.

If you want an Irish beer to give you an inferiority complex, you need to be buying it by the 440ml can.

Thundercats Ho

12 Acres have been using 440ml cans for their last 2 seasonals, the far side, and make hay.

irish_goat

Rascals seem to use both but I'd far rather they put the likes of Happy Days into the 440mls and left the specials in the smaller cans.

petros1980

Doodah7 wrote: »

I haven't drank a 500 ml can of anything in about 25 years! Beer would be flat, warm and horrible by the time I would get to the end!

Personally, I don't drink craft beer directly from either a can or a bottle. The flavour of the beer can only be enhanced by consuming it from a glass. I would drink a bog standard lager from a bottle on a warm day if there was nothing else available. As for those 'slabs' of lager/stout... not in a million years!

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Thelonious Monk

Just to bump this, but I am one of the few that prefers canned beers to bottles - why are Irish craft beers in those stupid 440ml cans? There don't seem to be any in 500ml size.

L1011

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

Just to bump this, but I am one of the few that prefers canned beers to bottles - why are Irish craft beers in those stupid 440ml cans? There don't seem to be any in 500ml size.

Read the very first reply in post 2.

Also, you can get away with charging a bit more as people think they look like a 500ml can.

Also x2, plenty of people prefer cans to bottles for beer - no light getting through to do things to the beer. Its soft drinks where glass bottles are obsessed over (coke and irn bru particularly)

Thelonious Monk

L1011 wrote: »

Read the very first reply in post 2.

I did but I don't think an extra 60ml is going to make a can that much less fresher or colder to the end! I think it's just the random 440ml size that annoys me. I wonder if they get that size can for cheaper or something, only other place I've seen them is when I lived in the UK, they have Guinness and all sorts in that size.

L1011

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

I did but I don't think an extra 60ml is going to make a can that much less fresher or colder to the end! I think it's just the random 440ml size that annoys me. I wonder if they get that size can for cheaper or something, only other place I've seen them is when I lived in the UK, they have Guinness and all sorts in that size.

There was a poster here years and years ago saying they prefered UK multipack cans over Irish ones due to the difference making it a more natural serving size. This was well before Irish craft breweries canned at all (and the first out of the blocks used 330s). Its a fairly common belief

Its not like 500ml is some ordained serving size we must stick to. Go to a pub and you're going to get 568ml or 284ml of most beers, maybe 390ml or 195ml depending on the beer. And 35.5ml or multiples thereof for spirits, 187.5ml of wine (there or thereabouts, its rarely measured) and so on.

the_syco

imme wrote: »

Anyway when did small (330ml) beer cans become a thing.

Is there any reason that they're a thing.

When living in Toronto, the small cans were seen as the "normal" sized cans, and what we call normal are called "tall boys".

Thelonious Monk

the_syco wrote: »

When living in Toronto, the small cans were seen as the "normal" sized cans, and what we call normal are called "tall boys".

Yes small cans are normal in Spain and France, they're good in warm countries just make sure you have enough of them. Tall Boys lol, haven't heard that in a while. Kokanee gold I used to drink, Canadian beer can be rough.

L1011

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

Canadian beer can be rough.

Anyone remember the mid 00s promo push on Labatt Blue? Gutrot. And the promo staff were *far* less attractive than the Amstel ones that were also handing out free pints around the same time... Labatt only had the usual underdressed women; Amstel realising that they were marketing to all men included a blond surfer dude to sweep up those who weren't in to boobs :pac:

beachhead

Can people posting here be more exact where/when these 330ml beer cans were on sale-excluding the "hipster"macro/micro premium niche beers and railway/airlines/ships/coaches/exclusive shops.Also,tell me about the 500ml mineral cans,please.I do not believe I have lived long enough in the Republic to have seen these on sale.

Geuze

I think the first question I ever posted on boards, maybe, was why are cans 440ml?

330ml I can understand.

500ml ok.

But 440 ml??

I have never got a full answer.

Thelonious Monk

L1011 wrote: »

Anyone remember the mid 00s promo push on Labatt Blue? Gutrot. And the promo staff were *far* less attractive than the Amstel ones that were also handing out free pints around the same time... Labatt only had the usual underdressed women; Amstel realising that they were marketing to all men included a blond surfer dude to sweep up those who weren't in to boobs :pac:

Yes they tried to push Labatts for a while. The versions of Canadian and Labatts you get here are different to in Canada though, all Canadian beers even the mass produced ones seem to be over 5%, when I first moved there I couldn't believe how hungover they used to make me.

the_syco

Geuze wrote: »

I think the first question I ever posted on boards, maybe, was why are cans 440ml?

330ml I can understand.

500ml ok.

But 440 ml??

I have never got a full answer.

Interestingly, 440ml + weight of it's container is meant to be 1lb. So possibly for the purpose of knowing how much a boat could take?

ciaran76

Strangely enough I saw 220ml (I think)beer cans in Molloy's about 2 months ago. They were high alcohol % so I assume that's why they were smaller.

Macy0161

I've no issue with cans - I've been on a few tours where they've all insisted it keeps better. I do have an irritation at the same price as 500ml bottle, although some (like Wicklow Wolf) have reduced their standard pricing to reflect that.

So far so good with my beercloud/ radical bottle orders in terms of breakages, but if this is going to be the new normal, I'd expect more breweries to move to 440ml cans.

IHateNewShoes

So just to be clear, there is no way of getting the 330ml cans of mainstream beers in an off licence? I know they have them on transport trolleys but apart from this is it craft beers or nothing if looking for the small can?

Coillte_Bhoy

Who delivers for Radical Drinks? Might order some stuff but would like to know this first, cheers

Macy0161

Coillte_Bhoy wrote: »

Who delivers for Radical Drinks? Might order some stuff but would like to know this first, cheers

Fastway - same as beercloud.

keano_afc

I'd have no issue drinking the 330ml more regularly if the price reflected the reduced quantity of beer.

I'm a regular Wicklow Wolf drinker, but I admit I was a bit miffed when the 500ml bottles were replaced with smaller cans. Especially when the price didnt come down.

irish_goat

keano_afc wrote: »

I'm a regular Wicklow Wolf drinker, but I admit I was a bit miffed when the 500ml bottles were replaced with smaller cans. Especially when the price didnt come down.

It definitely puts me off. I don't mind a jump from 500ml bottle to 440ml cans so much, but there's a big difference if it goes down to 330ml cans and there's no price change.

Macy0161

keano_afc wrote: »

I'm a regular Wicklow Wolf drinker, but I admit I was a bit miffed when the 500ml bottles were replaced with smaller cans. Especially when the price didnt come down.

It did though - they went 3 for €9 as their standard pricing, as far as I'm aware? Best I could get was 3 for €10 when they were bottles.

I've more of an issue of them going 330ml bottles in pubs, although that's moot now!

keano_afc

Macy0161 wrote: »

It did though - they went 3 for €9 as their standard pricing, as far as I'm aware? Best I could get was 3 for €10 when they were bottles.

I've more of an issue of them going 330ml bottles in pubs, although that's moot now!

My local Super Valu regularly had the 500ml bottles on at 3 for €9. Admittedly it was the regular beers like Sorachi Red and Elevation, but still a great bargain.

Macy0161

keano_afc wrote: »

My local Super Valu regularly had the 500ml bottles on at 3 for €9. Admittedly it was the regular beers like Sorachi Red and Elevation, but still a great bargain.

On offer though - the 3 for €9 is what they say is the standard pricing now. Although it's 2 for 6 in my centra, so I'm forced to buy four at a time...

Anyway, the apex is a step up from their perleporter imo.

rubadub

IHateNewShoes wrote: »

So just to be clear, there is no way of getting the 330ml cans of mainstream beers in an off licence?

You could ask a small offie if they could get them, you could be paying a fortune for them. What beer do you actually want?

I can see heineken NA cans here
https://nutsaboutwine.ie/shop/heineken-0-0-non-alcoholic-6-x-330ml-e6-00/

amazon have pint cans of heineken
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Heineken-Premium-Lager-Beer-568ml/dp/B087CBR2BJ/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=heineken+cans&qid=1589878150&sr=8-1
I am pretty sure I saw 330ml there before, but then there is the risk of duty and I am pretty sure they were expensive, but some people are no bothered by that.

SHows as not available
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Heineken-Lager-Can-330ml-Cans/dp/B0162T22MQ

irish_goat

We get the 330ml Heinekens in the north.

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/255218744

As you say, you can get them on the likes of Irish Rail so there must be some wholesaler in the country who stocks them. Can't imagine they will be good value though.

caff

Macy0161 wrote: »

Fastway - same as beercloud.

Beercloud swapped to dpd after complaints about fastway

Macy0161

caff wrote: »

Beercloud swapped to dpd after complaints about fastway

This weeks beercloud order just arrived via fastway to here (wife's restock of Coast Road, not the craic festival box!).