Beer Container Sizes
Given that beer (and other beverages) come in a range of sizes and that those sizes are sometimes quite odd, I decided to do a bit of research into where these volumes came from. Canada, being heavily influenced by both British and US measures, has a distinctly weird collection of container sizes. But, once you take a look at the difference in size of the Imperial and US fluid ounces the original size of many of the strange metric volumes become more obvious. That said the historical origins - as opposed to the original size - is work for another day.
Below I created a table with some of the common bottle and can sizes and their Metric, Imperial and US measures. The items in bold are likely the source measure of that container size - e.g. a 341 mL beer bottle comes from the original 12 Imperial oz measure.
If you have a size that you'd like to see added to the list, let me know -> bottles -at-sign- tallglass.com.
| Name | mL | US oz | Imp oz | Description/Comments |
| US oz | 29.5735 | 1.000 | 1.041 | |
| Imperial Oz | 28.4131 | 0.961 | 1.000 | |
| | | | | |
| Small Euro Bottle | 250.0 | 8.5 | 8.8 | Small European bottle
Some Euro beers come in bottles this size |
| Glass | 227.3 | 7.7 | 8 | Common glass size for draught beer
much more common pre-1990 |
| European Bottle | 330.0 | 11.2 | 11.6 | European and other imported cans and bottles come in this size |
| Canadian Bottle | 341.0 | 11.5 | 12.0 | Standard for Canadian beer bottles |
| US/Canadian Can | 355.0 | 12.0 | 12.5 | Standard for Canadian and US Cans
Most Canadian brewers buy their cans from the US |
| Australian Bottle | 375.0 | 12.7 | 13.2 | Seems to be a 1/2 US 1/5 Gallon (strange)
Commonly seen in Australian bottles |
| Schooner | 426.2 | 14.4 | 15 | Sometimes seen as a draught beer size
Common in Australia though sometimes seen in Canada |
| Euro Can/Bottle | 440.0 | 14.9 | 15.5 | odd sized larger import can and bottle
Seen in Grolsch bottles and Guinness cans |
| US Pint | 473.2 | 16.0 | 16.7 | Commonly used in shadier pubs in Canada that try to get you to think that you're getting a real pint |
| Euro Can | 500.0 | 16.9 | 17.6 | Common size for imported cans and bottles |
| Imperial Pint | 568.3 | 19.2 | 20.0 | Standard used as a pint in Canada |
| 20 US oz bottle | 591.0 | 20.0 | 20.8 | 20 oz bottle
Mostly used for large serving specialty sodas |
| 650 mL (Bomber) | 650.0 | 22.0 | 22.9 | 22 oz/large bottle
Sold as large single bottles |
| 70 cL | 700.0 | 23.7 | 24.6 | A very rounded 1/5 US Gallon
Some Belgian style bottle conditioned ales come in this size |
| 710 mL | 710.0 | 24.0 | 25.0 | Tallboy cans based on 24 US ounces
Brands that could be called middle to low-brow use this format for volume efficiency |
| 750 mL | 750.0 | 25.4 | 26.4 | Metricized standard 26er or 1/5 of a US Gallon
Some Belgian style bottle conditioned ales come in this size |
| 1/5 Gallon | 768.9 | 26.0 | 27.1 | The standard 26er or 1/5 of a US Gallon
Some Belgian style bottle conditioned ales come in this size |
| 1 L | 1000.0 | 33.8 | 35.2 | Nice round 1 L
Some specialty beers will sell in this size |
| 2 Imperial Pints | 1136.5 | 38.4 | 40.0 | Imperial 40 oz bottle
Usually shown as 1.14 Litres. Rare larger size |
| US 40 | 1182.9 | 40.0 | 41.6 | US 40 oz bottle
Generally serving up 40 oz of fun in a brown paper bag for a nice bender in the park |
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