The Beer Bottle Saga.
Dr. Wetbrain was reminiscing one day while sipping on a beer bottle. His thought drifted to the “Stubbie’s”. Beer bottles never had a tall neck at one time. It was in the 1980’s when the tall neck became popular. Twist top cap bottles were already used in the 1960’s but never got popular till much later. Thanks to the tall neck bottles. I remember using lighters and seatbelts for stubby bottle openers. Seen people using boards and their eye socket to open beer bottles. What the??!
Commercial beer bottles started in the late 1600s but were not a big thing then. Even though carrying a case of glass bottled beer is better than walking down a cobble stoned street toting beer filled bowls or large covered steins in each hand. Noted that both would have been filled from a barrel spout.
In the late 1600s these new beer bottles were made with clear glass at first. But were soon realized buy the faithful guzzlers that the beer was sour, skunky tasting after sitting in the sun for a short spell. According to scientific research ultra-violet rays damage the acids found in the hops. Thus, the brown tinted bottles. Which were made to prevent the nasty UV rays from damaging the hops. No more skunks! Green beer bottles are made, but the UV protection is not as good as the brown bottles.
Since 1975 a Japanese company called Kirin Holdings tracked the global consumption of beer. 185 million Kiloliters in 2021. 74000 Olympic sized swimming pools. Dr. Wetbrain thought the numbers would be higher. Thank you Visualcapitalist.com for 2021 data on global beer consumption in different countries.
So let us talk about divots on the base or bottom of a beer bottle. I always thought that it was the number of how many times that bottle was recycled. Which does not make sense for the bottle is molded only once. These dots or ‘heel codes’ are for production equipment to read the size of the bottle. That’s it.
Unfortunately recycling bottles is a problem where more than 28 billion bottles annually do not get recycled. It’s good to know though that the average beer bottle gets reused 15 times in its life span with a strict process of inspection and sanitation.
Beer consumption has gone through a long history from covered Beer Steins to cardboard cases of 24 bottles of beer to carry home.