Right, I need some help, I am doing a bit of reasearch for a blog project and I want to know your opinions on Big bottles of beer.
I’m a big fan of 750ml bottles of beer, big bottles of IPA, Kriek and Geuze are fab for drinking while laying in the summer sun or watching the evening sun go down. Big bottles of Stout and Barley wine are great for sharing with mates or pairing with food at dinner parties. You can of course always go to the next step and buy 1.5 litre magnums of various belgian beers, which I’d much prefer at celebrations than champagne.
Big bottles of big beer
Sometimes they even reprisent good value for money, although I know a lot of it does depend on the style and strength of the beer along with who brewed it and how much was brewed, some beers seem to command a much higher price on the open market – i’ve heard that some bottles cost over £1 just for the empty bottle before filling, cappinga and labelling, which isn’t cheap.
What I’d like to know is
- Do you like 75oml bottles of beer?
- When do you drink them?
- Are they part of your staple beer drinking?
- Are they worth the money? and How much would you pay?
- What’s the cheapest 750ml bottle you’ve bought?
- What’s the most expensive 750ml bottle you’ve bought?
So please leave your answers below so I can get my post underway.
I like 750s but tend to reserve them for special occasions – although it’s only 1.5 pints it still feels pretty big. I’ve paid anywhere between £4 and £25 for a 750ml but I’d think twice before breaking the £10 mark. I quite like the 660s that Moor and some US breweries use as they are in between… If the beer’s good and the price is fair then I’ll buy it.
I really like 750ml bottles for certain types of special beer and I am much more likely to spend a bit more money on a 750ml than the same beer in a 330ml. with a 750ml it feels more like a special occasion when you open it and for me the extra volume means the price is justified. I have now banned myself from buying special or limited edition beers in 330ml bottles.
Is bigger better? Depends if we a talking about boobs or brain tumours. On beer, more is always better than less.
Did you buy those Marble bottles on Saturday, and if so how much did you pay? I’m asking because when I asked at the Marble Beerhouse I was quoted a price significantly higher than the current price at mybrewerytap.com, which seems a bit odd.
Moving along… I hatesss 750ml bottles, hates them we does. In two words, too bloody big. 750 ml of a 10.7% beer like the Marble Special is the rough equivalent of three and a half pints of a 4% bitter, which is a substantial session as far as I’m concerned. Too big (and generally too expensive) to open outside of special occasions – and I don’t seem to have enough special occasions!
I like 75 cl bottles very much. Especially if the beer is bottle-conditioned, and even more so if it has a cork instead of a crown cap. It seems to me that the cork makes a big difference, taste-wise. And corks are, in my experience, more often found on big bottles. Without this difference, I tend to go for the big bottle as well. I usually like to share every special beer I drink with my partner, or with a small number of friends. A 75 cl bottle fits well for two or three people, or you can share it with even more people during a beer tasting.
I do not need a special occasion to drink big bottles – not more than for small bottles of that same beer. However, in order to drink a special beer, I need to be in the right mood and focused enough – regardless of the bottle size. I probably would not buy a “normal” beer (which here in Northern Germany would mean a standard pilsner like Jever, Veltins, or the like) in big bottles. The reason is that I might want to drink such an “everyday” beer alone, and it is not likely to taste better in big bottles.
I am willing to pay more money for big bottles of bottle-fermented beer, especially if it also means to get a cork instead of a crown cork. I guess the cheapest 75 cl bottles I have bought in the past were Saison Dupont and Blanche De Namur, found in Belgian supermarkets for less than 3 EUR. The most expensive big bottle bought in a bar was probably Brasserie de la Senne’s Crianza, the most expensive big bottles bought in a shop were probably Malheur Bière Brut or Horal’s Oude Gueuze Mega Blend, which still cost less than 20 EUR I think – I have successfully suppressed the exact memory ;o).
I would probably be willing to pay even more, but only on rare occasions. And I would need to be sure that the beer will be my taste. And I would definitely think twice before breaking the 10 EUR mark as well.
Thank for the comments everyone!
Mark – can’t agree more with the bit about the beer being good and price being fair!
Sam – I always said id not buy expensive 330ml bottles but i’ve found my self buying them because I want to try the beer…oops
Phil – Firstly, nice to meet you at Twissup, I did indeed get the beers from Twissup but not from the MA, The special was part of a swap I have going on with a mate when ever I see him, we swap a bottle without telling each other what we are getting. Indeed My brewery tap are cheaper for the Choc Double and V & V, especially if you get them as part of the pic and mix case and chuck in a few other single bottles to keep postage costs down.
Nina, Thanks for the comments sounds like you have some pretty amazing beers available locally in big bottles…for that I’m quite jealous…most mine come from the internet or speciality shops as and when i can get to one as there are none near by.
@ Andy: Unfortunately, I do not have those big bottles available locally – unless I travel to Belgium, which I try to do once a year. On my way home the suitcase is usually spiked with big beer bottles 😉 The choice is much smaller in my local shops at home, unfortunately.
I wrote a reply to this yesterday and your blog deleted it because I hadnt entered my email address by mistake. So here’s take two …
Do you like 75oml bottles of beer?
Yes, love ’em. People find it completely normal to open a bottle of wine, share it around and/or split it over a meal. I wish we had the culture of doing the same with beer. Splitting a bomber of beer over a meal with other people sounds brilliant to me, I wish people did it more in the UK.
When do you drink them?
With people, either when sharing a few beers or having something to eat.
Are they part of your staple beer drinking?
Not really. Partly because you dont see many of them in the UK (unless you go to specialist places) and partly because they tend to be “occasion” bottles and those “occasions” don’t come around too often.
Are they worth the money? and How much would you pay?
I don’t think bottle size is imporant in terms of value. Regardless of the size, it all comes down to price per ml. When the price per bottle gets up and around £8, it becomes a considered purchase for me.
What’s the cheapest 750ml bottle you’ve bought?
Around £6 approx.
What’s the most expensive 750ml bottle you’ve bought?
Probably around £15.
A large part of my problem is that I haven’t got anyone to split a bomber with (sad but true!)
I like 750ml bottles, so much so, that when I have a brewery all my beer will be in 375ml or 750ml bottles. It’s a great size, you get two decent glasses of beer out of it, which is nice if you’re sharing with someone. It’s just a shame that more breweries that offer 750ml bottles, don’t offer a 375ml as well.
I think the most expensive I’ve bought was a couple of bottles of weird lambic from Brasserie 4:20 in Rome, they cost me €20 each. I’d pay more if the beer justified it though.
I quite like the 750ml bottles, particularly the Moor, Marble and Meantime ones I have. For me, its a case of quality not quantity. If the beer is lovely then i’m not really bothered how big the bottle is.