"David Lang" wrote in message
.uk...
Hi All

Why is beer sold in 440 ml cans?

500ml - half a litre I can understand, 568 ml - a pint I can understand,
but 440 ml doesn't convert to anything!

Tastes the same mind you.......

But why?

My guess is that it was chosen to minimise material waste when making the
cans. Tennants appear to have been making 440ml cans as early as 1955, when
they were made as traditional tin cans - a tube of tinplated steel for the
body with circular ends joined to it by rolling the edges. Allowing for the
edge rolls, the height of a can would suggest it was originally made from a
6 inch wide roll of tinplate, while the ends would be about the right size
to have been punched out of a 3 inch wide roll.

Colin Bignell