Bottles vs. Cans: What’s Best for Your Craft Beer Brand?

A practical guide to explore the pros, cons, and strategic considerations behind today’s most popular beer packaging.

Choosing the Right Craft Beer Packaging for Your Vision

Craft beer packaging does more than contain your product. It protects your brew, amplifies your brand, and influences where and how your beer is consumed. Whether you’re launching a new flagship IPA or scaling up a seasonal release, the packaging you choose plays a pivotal role in how your beer is perceived and preserved. Choosing the right craft beer packaging ensures your product meets both brand and quality expectations.

Glass bottles and aluminum cans each bring unique advantages to the table. Deciding which one is right for your brewery comes down to a few critical factors including product type, brand positioning, distribution strategy, and operational logistics.

Product Protection & Freshness: The Science Behind Beer Packaging Materials

Glass Bottles

Effective Oxygen Management

Glass provides an exceptional oxygen barrier when properly sealed, making it ideal for beers that benefit from extended aging or those with delicate flavor profiles that oxygen can easily compromise.

Chemical Neutrality

Glass is non-reactive and won’t leach flavors or interact with your beer’s chemistry. This neutrality is particularly valuable for:

Barrel-aged beers with complex flavor compounds
Sour beers with high acidity levels
High-ABV styles that can be more aggressive on packaging materials
Bottle-conditioned beers requiring extended fermentation

Light Protection Considerations

Clear glass offers minimal UV protection, which can lead to off-flavors. Amber glass provides excellent light protection, while green glass offers moderate protection.

Aluminum Cans

Complete Light Barrier

Aluminum cans provide total light protection, making them ideal for styles where lightstruck flavors are a concern. This complete barrier helps preserve:

Delicate hop aromatics in IPAs and pale ales
Color stability in lighter beer styles
Overall flavor integrity during retail display

Oxygen Barrier Excellence

Modern can technology creates excellent oxygen barriers, often performing well in real-world distribution conditions. The interior lining can help prevent any metal-to-beer contact while maintaining barrier properties.

Brand Perception & Market Positioning: How Beer Packaging Shapes Consumer Expectations

Glass Bottles: Crafting Premium Perceptions

Glass bottles carry brewing tradition and immediately signal craftsmanship to consumers. This format often commands higher price points and naturally positions itself for thoughtful drinking experiences, such as dinner pairings, special occasions, or moments when the drinking ritual is central to the experience.

Design opportunities:

Traditional paper labels with various finishes
Painted-on labels for premium positioning
Etched or embossed designs for ultra-premium products
Foil applications and specialty finishing techniques

Aluminum Cans: Modern Brand Expression

Cans provide extensive surface area for brand expression and resonate with consumers who value convenience, environmental consciousness, and modern aesthetics. They’re particularly effective for active lifestyle positioning and younger demographics.

Design Opportunities:

Full-wrap graphic designs that tell complete brand stories
Bold, attention-grabbing shelf presence
Intricate artwork and photography reproduction
Special finishes like matte coatings and metallic effects

Your packaging should tell your story. Choose the format that reinforces your brand identity and connects with your ideal customer. And as you evaluate craft beer packaging options, it’s important to consider how glass bottles and aluminum cans affect every stage of your operations.

Operational Considerations: Logistics, Cost & Efficiency

Your packaging format affects every aspect of your brewery operations, from production line efficiency to warehouse management. Understanding these operational impacts helps you make decisions that support both quality and profitability.

Glass Bottles

Requires careful handling equipment, packaging materials, and storage systems to prevent breakage
Quality control processes can include pressure and thermal testing
Higher shipping costs due to weight and fragility

Aluminum Cans

Supports faster line speeds and higher throughput potential
Stack efficiently to optimize warehouse space
Quality control processes can include testing seam integrity, coating and liner consistency, and sampling

Factor operational complexity and total costs into your packaging decision. Consider not just unit cost, but handling, storage, and quality control requirements.

Packaging Sustainability & Environmental Impact

Glass and aluminum can both be infinitely recycled without losing quality, but their environmental impact depends on factors like local recycling systems, how far they travel, and the energy used in each region. Understanding these differences helps you align packaging choices with sustainability goals.

Glass Bottles

When part of a refillable system, glass bottles can be reused several times to reduce waste
Heavier than cans, which means more fuel is used during shipping
Recycling rates can vary a lot depending on the area
Sometimes recycled into things like tiles or fiberglass—not always new bottles

Aluminum Cans

Strong recycling infrastructure exists in most markets
Lighter weight helps lower shipping emissions
Often recycled back into new cans quickly and efficiently
Aluminum uses less energy to manufacture, but mining the raw material can be resource-intensive

While both are recyclable, aluminum usually has the edge when it comes to energy use and transportation impact. Still, it’s important to look at your full supply chain and local recycling options to make the best choice for your sustainability goals.

Final Pour: There’s No One-Size-Fits-All Format

Choosing between glass and aluminum is about strategic alignment with your brewery’s unique goals, beer styles, and market position. Many successful craft breweries use both formats strategically, selecting the optimal package for each product, channel, and consumption occasion.

The most effective packaging decisions consider not just immediate needs, but they also support long-term growth plans. Your packaging should complement your product quality, reinforce your brand story, enable your distribution strategy, and evolve with your brewery as you scale.

Consider where your brewery is today and where you want to be in the coming years. The format you choose should serve both current requirements and future ambitions.

Let’s Find the Right Fit Together

Making the optimal craft beer packaging decision requires careful consideration of multiple factors specific to your brewery’s situation. Our team understands the unique challenges facing craft breweries and can help you navigate the trade-offs between glass and aluminum packaging.