OT Beer

[David Lang]

Hi All

Why is beer sold in 440 ml cans?

500ml - half a litre I can understand, 568 ml - a pint I can understand, but 440 ml doesn't convert to anything!

Tastes the same mind you.......

But why?

Dave

[PC Paul]

Soft drinks have been 330ml (~1/3 litre) for ages. Maybe as simple as the next size up?

How about 440ml = fill a half litre glass, with room for a head?

[SmileyFace]

Often thought the same myself. Maybe it's related to an _American_ fluid measure?

[Chip]

On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 00:02:08 +0100,it is alleged that "SmileyFace" spake thusly in uk.d-i-y:

None that I can see, it's 0.93 US pints roughly, and doesn't really add up to anything, odd.

[Frank Erskine]

It's all a fiddle with metrication.

[David Lang]

Hi SF

I thought that, but no! A mystery! Time for another beer!

Dave

[Bob Eager]

Can't find anything....but it is 88 metric teaspoons!

Wonder if it's a fraction of a pitcher - we had a restaurant that used to sell beer in pitchers (until Weights and Measures stopped them).

[nightjar]

My guess is that it was chosen to minimise material waste when making the cans. Tennants appear to have been making 440ml cans as early as 1955, when they were made as traditional tin cans - a tube of tinplated steel for the body with circular ends joined to it by rolling the edges. Allowing for the edge rolls, the height of a can would suggest it was originally made from a

6 inch wide roll of tinplate, while the ends would be about the right size to have been punched out of a 3 inch wide roll.

Colin Bignell

[Al Reynolds]

You will think that I am slightly sad for having noticed this, but on pondering the 13.5% extra free offer on some beer cans, I realised that: 440ml + 13.6% = 500ml (0.5 litre) 500ml + 13.6% = 568ml (1 pint)

I can't believe this is a coincidence. Al

[Gordon Henderson]

American fluid ounces are the same as over here - One ounce of pure water weighs one ounce avoirdupois.

The USians put 16 of these into a pint, so a US pint weighs 1lb, while we put 20 into a pint. (So a UK gallon of water weighs 10lbs)

It all goes downhill from there.

Gordon

[Tony Williams]

Didn't they used to do the old quietly_reducing_the_size trick with chocolate bars as well?

[nightjar]

It is a remarkable piece of forward planning if it is not a coincidence. Tennent's lager appeared in 440ml cans in 1955 but 500ml cans marked as

13.5% extra don't seem to have been used before 1989, about a year after they introduced the 500ml can.

Colin Bignell

[RedOnRed]

I should imagine 440ml can sizes is something to do with striking a balance of getting as much product in as light-weight and as cheap a can as possible. 450ml would probably make the can unstable...or something.

Maybe standard supermarket shelves are better suited to that can size too.

[Al Reynolds]

Yep it's definitely either a remarkable piece of forward planning or a remarkable coincidence.

Decimalisation was first planned in 1849 (introduction of the Florin) but didn't take place until 1971. I imagine it was definitely "in the offing" by 1955, so maybe Tennent's were anticipating everyone drinking out of half-litre glasses and decided that 440ml would leave enough room for the head? All guesswork really!

Al

[David Lang]

Al Reynolds wrote;

Neither can I. But why 13:5% extra free? Another odd figure! Why not 10% or 15%?

The plot thickens.................

Dave

[PC Paul]

Once the production lines are set up for 440ml and 500ml cans then giving

13.6% extra is the obvious choice. Doesn't explain why 440ml in the first place though...

[Christian McArdle]

It's not far off an Aussie schooner. Did Australians invent tinned beer?

Christian.

[WoodYouLike]

On mainland Europe the contents of a glass of beer is 220mm (yes, very small, plus with a head!). So tin = 2 glasses

[RedOnRed]

Off the top of my head i'd say...

The "official" birthday of the beer can is January 24, 1935. That's the day cans of Krueger's Finest Beer and Krueger's Cream Ale first went on sale in Richmond, VA. But the beer can really made its debut some 14 months earlier - just before the repeal of Prohibition. American Can Company had engineered a workable beer can. All that was needed was a brewer willing to take the pioneering plunge. The Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company of Newark, NJ signed on the dotted line in November 1933.

[Christian McArdle]

OK, but I bet US sizes did not include the 440ml. Even their cans today are in US measures. Who introduced the metric 440ml can?

Christian.