Sorry, I should have been more clear on bottle types.
There are :
Returnable. You usually pay a deposit on these cases and you get your deposit back when you return the empties to the store. These bottles are made of thicker glass and are “pop-top” instead of “twist-off”
Non-returnable. These are normally “twist-offs”(at least in the USA), but can also be made in “pop-top” form.
I Read Somewhere that twist-off caps are made of aluminum, while the other kind are made of steel. Somehow this means that twist-off caps don’t seal the bottle as reliably as the churchkey caps, so beers that have to be shipped long distances use the non-twistoff caps. So there you are, it’s a shipping thing.
Could the answer perhaps have something to do with the fact that most bars sell more domestic macrobrews which are opened with a twist off cap, thus speeding up the process for a busy bartender?
No, from what I’ve seen they use an opener for every bottle. Chances are that they have to open over 100 bottles a night and even though it is twist off, it would still do some damage to the hand to open that many. Plus, I don’t think I’d want somebody’s dirty hand cupped over something I was about to drink out of.
I’m with you on the horse piss thing. I bet Heineken is good in Holland, but the US stuff sucks.
The skunked effect is from light or heat spoiling the beer. It’s a typical taste in any brew bottled in green or clear bottles. Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout tastes awful to me, but everyone else seems to like it…
You can’t tell from outside the bottle whether a beer’s been skunked or not. You just have to taste it, or not buy green- and clear-bottled beer.
Doesn’t matter, it’s beer. One way or another, it will be opened.
… for removing a small chunk of said surface.
Or removing a small chunk of glass from the bottle neck. I’ve done that more than once…
Based on my experience as a homebrewer, the non-twist bottles are a lot easier to get a good, solid seal on. Presumably the big bottlers have solved that problem with their equipment.
I really don’t understand why anyone would bottle beer in clear bottles, like Corona. Since “skunking” happens with exposure to light, the dark brown bottles protect the product much better.
My favorite non-twist story happened at the funeral of a good friend. They had a bunch of cheap beer in the house afterwards, and his son (knowing my tastes) told me that there was a cooler of good stuff on the balcony outside. I went out and found a bottle to my liking, and didn’t see an opener. I used the tried & true method described by Birdmonster in post #3. Problem is, I missed the bottlecap and smacked the neck of the bottle, snapping it off. I examined both parts and it looked like a clean break, so I proceeded to dring the beer out of the neck of the broken bottle.
One of the guests looked at me and said, “did you just bite the neck off of that beer bottle?” I smiled enigmatically and walked away. He told everyone there that he saw me bite the neck off the bottle and then drink it. I developed quite a reputation with that crowd. 
I really don’t understand why anyone would bottle beer in clear bottles, like Corona. Since “skunking” happens with exposure to light, the dark brown bottles protect the product much better.
True, but the bottles are immediately sealed in cardboard boxes. I think the only light that most Coronas see is the light in the refrigerator.
How do you open a bottle with a lighter?
WAG alert - Could it be that real beer, that is beer that is bottle conditioned*, requires a good seal that can only be provided with a non-twist cap.
Pretend-beer, which is pasteurised on bottling does not undergo further furmentation with subsequent co[sub]2[/sub] release and thus can get by being packaged with twist-top.
*Bottle conditioned beer is bottled with a small amount of yeast. The yeast eats the residual sugars in the beer and the beer continues to ferment and condition. Secondary fermentation takes place in the bottle rather than the brewery.
Pretend beer is brewed with sucrose and often pasteurised. I think this is a criminal offence in Germany under the oldest food purity law - the RhineHightsGaBoat ??- Bavarian beer puity law.
You mean the Reinheitsgebot (lit. purity law)? It originates in Bavaria from about 1516.
In New York State, a deposit is charged for all beer and soda and you can receive a refund for empties. Twist off, pop off, plastic, glass, aluminum. All are “returnable.”
You place the butt-end of the lighter under the crown cap, use the knuckles of the hand wrapped around the neck of the bottle as a fulcrum, and then just use the lighter as a level to flick off the crown cap. With some practice you can get very good at this. I can open a bottle like this without even having to look, and in about two seconds from when it was handed to me and I have my ligher out.
I just found a pretty good picture here. You may have to scroll down a little to get to the picture.
Bolding mine. That’s supposed to say lever. One of these days I will learn to check more thoroughly when I preview.
Not necessarily. Here in Michigan, where every beer bottle and can is returnable, we get both pop-tops and twist-offs. From anecdotal evidence, the better beers* invariably come in pop-top bottles. If I grab a beer and find I can twist off the top, I know I’m in for a corporate swill-fest.
Yet one more advantage to carrying a Swiss Army Knife is that many models include a bottle opener among the blades and you need never worry about being beer-less for want of an opener.
Re: Use of the edge of a counter or table. An idiot “friend” of mine did this at my house and permantently marred the surface of a new countertop. He is no longer welcome. Anyone wishing to experiment with the technique should practice only on surfaces that are their personal property.
My favorites are the pop-tops with plastic tabs. Easiest to open by far.