Bring Back the Stubby Bottles!

[Bruker]

Who wouldn't like to drink their beer out of those stubby bottles that were so popular up until the early 80's? You'd think the major breweries would start using them again since you can package more stubby bottles in the same space as the long neckers.

[Richard English]

I have to say I care little what shape the bottle might be. The correct utensil from which to drink beer is a glass or pewter tankard. Bottles are for storage and transport, as are barrels.

I deplore the modern practice of drinking directly from bottles or cans, whose exterior surfaces are of dubious cleanliness, and positively refuse to do it.

I call on all true beer enthusiasts to do the same as I - pour from the bottle; drink from the glass!

[davesarman]

Dear Mr. English,
I must concur on your sentiments about drinking beer from a glass rather than a bottle or can. However, sentiment can sometimes make one nostalgic for beers of the past, I can remember drinking Schmidt beer out of wide mouth stubbies (we called them grenades). Anyway, I digress. Wondering if where you live you must consistently ask for a non-chilled glass as I do in Minnesota. It seems almost every establisment (except good brewpubs) will serve their beer in a glass chilled to near zero degreees Kelvin unless asked for otherwise. And when I ask for a non-chilled glass, I get strange looks, as if I don't know what I'm doing! Ah, the uneducated masses.

[Richard English]

Quote "...you must consistently ask for a non-chilled glass ..."

Not in the UK, since few drinking establishments chill their glasses. It may just possibly happen in "American Bars" in London, but not in other places.

However, when I was recently in New England the hotel where I was staying had bottled Sam Smiths available and, on my first visit I asked for a pint. The lady behind the bar was most apologetic that she had ice-cold bottles, but was able to offer me a frozen glass.

I was able to tell her I wanted neither chilled glass nor bottle - just cold, I suggested, would do.

As an obliging lady she arranged, for the rest of my stay, to have some Sam's available that was cooll but not frozen and a glass that was at room temperature.

[Claus]

I have fond memories of sitting in the back of a pick-up at Beaver Stadium in State College, PA, drinking Mickies Big Mouths watching the 4th of July fireworks.

Why is it that the shape of a beer bottle or taste of a cold beer on a hot summer day brings back such strong memories? Must be the senses making our minds respond.

[Beer Nazi]

The stubbies are cool looking.

I too prefer to drink from a room-temperature glass, but sometimes the glass-wear is impractical, like when you are 30 miles out to sea fishing on 5 to 10 foot swells, at a sporting event, hunting, etc.

Drinking from the bottle is nostalgic for me also. I try to stick to the "not-so-good" beers when I drink from a bottle.

I dislike chilled glasses, and I absolutely detest frosted or frozen mugs, but that's the only way you can drink the piss-poor, American standards.

You know you drink bad beer when you have to drink it at or near freezing temperatures, and when a slice of lemon or lime enhances the flavor (some Belgian beers and some Heffeweisens are excluded from the fruit smack ;) )

[Arassuil]

The 'longneck' bottle is commonly called a 'stubby' here, but I associate 'stubby' with the fat bottles with little neck. And as Bob McKenzie said ...
"Beer doesn't need to travel that far'

Personally I like a chilled glass and cold brew, and don't care for the "English experience" some alehouses put me through.

[East Coaster]

Here in Canada we still sell a stubby from a brew called red cap ale brewed by brick in Ontario.

http://www.brickbeer.com/html/brick005.html

this is the true stubby bottle. Also red stripe that is imported from Jamaica is also bottled in a stubby.

I also prefer to drink my beer in a non chilled glass, butI like the idea of the stubby as it brings back memories from times past.

[chazwicke]

I liked the "steinie" returnable bottles from the 50s. Yuengling used them up until the early 80s for their porter.

[jesskidden]

Originally posted by chazwicke
I liked the "steinie" returnable bottles from the 50s. Yuengling used them up until the early 80s for their porter.

Yeah, the steinie (http://www.breweriana.com/bottles/bottlefitz71805.jpg) was a favorite of mine as well. Tho' I don't brew anymore, I still have cases of steinies from Horlacher, Ortlieb and Straub in the cellar (the bottles of which I've been thinking of giving away to some deserving homebrewer, but I hate to give away the boxes themselves, too...).

I also have a few of the classic Canadian stubby returnables (a 12 pack of Molson Porter and some loose Brador bottles, which were sold in NY state). I was shocked when i found out the Canadians dropped that bottle for their universal returnable.

And, of course, in that same era (post-Repeal, pre-Craft) most of the "throw-away" beer bottles from US breweries were more or less "stubbies" of one design or another (in brown, green and clear glass), but they were so ubiquitous that I don't remember anyone really calling them that- they were just "beer bottles".

The standard in the 60's and 70's had this shape- http://www.breweriana.com/bottles/bottlebrew2.jpg but many other variations existed, as well. Budweiser had a unique one with A-B eagles or such (as best as I can recall- I never really "held" one :D) and some had slightly tapered necks of one design or another (here's two examples
http://www.breweriana.com/bottles/bottleburgundybrau.jpg
http://www.breweriana.com/bottles.html

A very similar bottle to the Canadian stubby was popular on the West Coast, esp. in the PNW - Carling's brands & Olympia are the ones I recall but it seems to me that the Lucky and Rainier brands (both of which had Canadian historic connections) may have used them as well.

[Arassuil]

Originally posted by jesskidden
A very similar bottle to the Canadian stubby was popular on the West Coast, esp. in the PNW - Carling's brands & Olympia are the ones I recall but it seems to me that the Lucky and Rainier brands (both of which had Canadian historic connections) may have used them as well. Carling Black Label used then til 1967, & Olympia, & Rainier used them itil the later 60's. In 1967 Rainier changed their bottles slightly (looking like your first link) and introduced 'Light Light', 'Light', & 'Not-So-Light'. The 'Light' was dubbed by long-time Rainier drinkers as 'Original', and in a few years, the whole Light-Light & Not-So-Light thing faded, and Rainier changed their bottles again to the shorter 'longneck' like what Alaska Brewing uses today.

Another old cheap brand we would get at times was Tacoma's Heidelberg in the 'Keg' bottle. I should also mention that the 'Keg' bottle was a Carling thing and they happened to own the Tacoma brewery.

[skahtboi]

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