Beer Rations

So, as an employee at the brewery for Sebago Brewing Company, my monthly beer allotment options are as follows:
* 1 1/2 barrel keg - 15.5 gallons - 165 drinks - 5.5 drinks a day
* 2 1/6 barrel kegs - 2 x 5.16 gallons - 110 drinks - 3.7 drinks a day
* 2 cases of bottles - 2 x 24 x 12 ounces - 48 drinks - 1.6 drinks a day

Any of these options would provide a sufficient supply of beer to most people, even split between a couple in my situation; however, one can't help but notice the vast difference between the bottled beer versus the kegged beer amounts. If one were looking to maximize his or her amount of beer they would clearly need to have a kegerator and go with the 1/2 barrel keg. Some might argue that this would be a waste of energy/resources to have a small refrigerator running with the sole purpose of keeping beer cold at all times just so one could pour a nice cold draft beer on a whim (while pickling the liver all at the same time), but is such a bad idea?

After working for a week in the brewery and having a few discussions about bottled beer, it's pretty astonishing the amount of waste that packaging products really creates. Beer is cheap, packaging is expensive. Beer drinkers don't ever see a large proportion of packaging that breweries and distributors use, and I'm sure the breweries don't see a large amount of waste that is created to make the packaging we use. That being said, would it be more economically/environmentally friendly to get involved with a kegerator which relies on the simple reuse of kegs instead of the involved process of recycling bottles - possibly, but that's not really in the cards right now anyway, but something to consider.


Also something to consider beer containers: canned beer is a better choice than bottled beer, as far as packaging is concerned, for several reasons:
* canned beer keeps better by not allowing any light to possibly "skunk" it
* less packaging material
* aluminum weighs less than glass
* aluminum cans can be recycled more efficiently than glass bottles

This was some topic of discussion at work the other day, and more can be read about the canning of beer here: New Belgium Brewing Company canning Fat Tire Ale.

I admit that I was biased against cans as well until this was brought to my attention, mainly because canning is almost exclusively done by macro breweries which I assumed did so just to save a dime at the expense of quality, but it turns out its best for quality, cost, and the environment. Either way - bottle or can - beer should be enjoyed after being poured into a glass. Drinking beer out of a glass gives the intended mouthfeel and provides more aroma which both help to enhance the overall perception and flavor of the beer.