Bottled vs. canned beer: Do they really taste different?

30 August 2016

People often say that beer tastes better from a bottle than from a can. However, one can ask whether this is the case. In an experiment participants at a festival were served a beer in a plastic cup. The beer was either poured from a bottle or can and the participants were encouraged to pick up the packaging in order to inspect the label before tasting the beer. All of the beer came from the same batch, nevertheless, those who evaluated the bottled beer rated it as tasting better than those who rated the beer that had been served from a can.
Next the researchers served the beer from bottle and can to a new group of participants blind. No sign of preference was obtained under such conditions.
Click here for an article about the study (479 kB).

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