US is running out of aluminum cans | Hacker News Reader

US is running out of aluminum cans

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14 pointselorant9 comments

I started brewing my own beer when the pandemic started. It's a fun new hobby, and I get to just re-use the glass bottles I bought, so it's also not wasteful.

It's also surprisingly inexpensive to get started. Like any hobby you can spend as much money as you want, and supply stores will try to push you to the latest and greatest. But I think I'm going to remain happy with my simple siphon, pair of one gallon (~3.75L) glass fermenters, and glass bottles for a long time.

Also, for whatever reason the homebrewing community in the US seems to have standardized around the five gallon (19L) batch size, but there's nothing wrong with smaller batches. I like being able to have more than one kind fermenting at once, and the space to variety ratio is great. Who really wants five gallons of the same thing when you gave have a few gallons of different beers?

That's one of the reasons I stopped doing it. I never wanted 5 gallons of the same beer and frankly it's a ton of work for 2 gallons, especially using all-grain or mostly grain+malt recipes. It was generally the better part of a day to get it done and then everything cleaned and sanitized and I decided I'd rather hike and let someone else brew my beer.

Non-issue. Price goes up, consumption of unimportant and completely substutible luxury goes down. You're locked down at home, you can buy a 40oz or 1L bottle instead of cans.

1L not convenient. bottle will go flat on last few servings. single serve cans also help control consumption.

alcohol is absolutely essential - stress levels at peaking and I would never consider it a luxury at this point.

Some historians point to the invention of beer as one of the chief reasons for the rise of farming grains, and therefore for the rise of civilization itself

Or just stop drinking alcohol and soda, that’s another way to solve this dilemma

Not convenient for you, perhaps. But convenient for larger human groups where multiple individuals like to drink the same beverage. A lot less expensive, too.

One thing I have never seen in the US, but seems more common in Europe is 2L or 3L plastic bottles of beer.

I guess being stuck at home, a 1/6 keg with a tap and CO2 system (which is less expensive than you'd think!) is the way to go -- with CO2 it should be ok for a few weeks to a month?

As someone with a kegerator your consumption goes way up - counting bottles really does help you mentally track consumption.

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