Bottled is far superior to canned beer but even bottle conditioned falls short of proper cask ale served via handpumps.
Craft beers if I understand correctly are similar to real ales in that they are very individual but unlike cask ales they have been pasteurised and are usually served via taps rather than handpumps so the conditioning is via added gas. A poor substitute IMHO.
For the last few months I've been having beer delivered by Gary from The Guild Ale House in 5 pt boxes (like a wine box). They are real ales from mainly local breweries and maintain some of their conditioning (here's a little trick Gary told me - put an inch or so in the bottom of your glass and whizz it for 2-3 secs with a stick blender then top up - perfect pint every time.)
Putting PNE on a tin would not induce me to drink that shit
'Craft Beer' can be cask of keg.
The term refers to small batch brewed beer and not mass produced, often pasteurised, chemically assisted shite like (American) Budweiser, Fosters, Carling, John Smith's, Greene King IPA, Wainwright, Doombar etc. The reason is usually means keg beer is because the term originated in America where cask ale is virtually non-existant.
Modern 'craft' keg beer and it's canned form is not like the pasteurised, lifeless rubbish that almost wiped out cask ale back in the 70s (Watney's Red Barrell, Double Diamond, John Smith/Tetley's/Thwaites' Smooth etc). It's unpasteurised and regularly unfined and since the invention of 'Key Kegs' doesn't have extra CO2 pumped into it during pouring.
I grew up drinking Bods, Wainwrights, London Pride, Deuchars IPA, Doombar and many other cask beer but, as with most things, when beer becomes popular people try to find ways of making it faster and making lots more of it often to detriment of the product. I wouldn't touch any of the above cask beers now because they're not what they used to be or in Bods case, doesn't exist anymore.
The same has happened with 'craft beer' and many of the brands you'll see in supermarkets or on tap in Spoons were once small batch breweries who sold out to the likes of AB Inbev, Marston's, Heineken etc.
Genuine 'craft beer' in cask, keg, bottle or can form can be a delight and well worth the extra you pay over something you can by 24 for £12 in Asda.
As for the PNE beers they originate from the Filling Factory on Buckshaw which is where many breweries send their beer to be kegged/bottled/canned. There isn't an actual brewery there and as said previously, whatever is in the PNE cans will be exactly the same as what is in the Burnley/Plastics/Blackpool/Chorley cans.
You're paying for the label not the beer.
