Japanese Scientists Are Making Special Plastic Beer Bottles

Beer, you may have noticed, never comes in a plastic bottle (excepting certain circumstances). It does come in cans, but you'd have to search far and wide to find beer in a plastic bottle, and for one very good reason: plastic makes quick work of the beer's quality. It'll go flat too soon, the flavor will be affected, and depending on how it is stored, the bottles may leech chemicals into the beer, raising health concerns. All those issues, though, will soon be behind us.

Mitsubishi Plastics recently announced a partnership with Kirin Brewery Co. to develop 1-liter plastic bottles designed for the special and sole purpose of containing beer. These bottles will have a coating inside that makes them beer-friendly. The plastic will — assuming the companies manage to pull off their goal — keep the beer from going flat, and will be flavor-neutral like glass.

The coating within the bottles makes the plastic less porous (by a factor of ten), which will keep the bottles from losing oxygen (something that will affect the flavor). As Mitsubishi Plastics points out, plastic bottles have been used to store sake and wine since 2010, but the use of plastic to store beer will be a tad revolutionary.

There are benefits beyond the recyclability factor — beer bottles are a concern at events due to the risk they pose, whether due to broken glass from dropped bottles cutting feet or angry fans brawling with sharp, hard bottles as weapons. Some sports events have already mandated that beer be served in plastic bottles, such as during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, and some concerns require it to be served in plastic cups.

VIA: Gizmodo