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 distictly weird collection of container sizes. But, once you take a look at the difference in size of the Imperial and US fluid ounces the origin of many of the strange metric sizes become obvious.
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.
| 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 |
| 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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