Craft Beer Bottle Sizes

As I have said in other posts, I like to drink beer.  I also keep a beer cellar in which I store and age some higher alcohol and sour beers to let them mature. I have a bone to pick with craft brewers and it is Bottle Sizes. 

Recently I decided that I was going to break into my cellar.  When I started to look through my selection I ended up not opening anything.  The problem I faced was most of the beer in my cellar are high alcohol and/or in 22 ounce or 750 ml bottles. I understand that craft brewers feel like they need to differentiate themselves. A lot of breweries view the large format releases as a way to do this, but I seldom want to drink 22oz of a high abv beer.  I do however enjoy drinking 6-12 ounces of those beers. 


There are a few breweries that have been successful in making their beers stand out and appear special. Goose Island, for one, releases four of their "Vintage Ale" series beers in 4 packs.  The packaging makes these beers look special. 

Also Rogue releases some of their beers in small 6.4 ounce bottles. That format defiantly stands out on the shelf.  I will also mention Dogfish Head because they bottle their super high abv beers (120 Minute IPA and World Wide Stout) in 12 oz bottles.  I will share one of these 12 oz bottles with someone else, if they were packaged in bombers or 750's I would be hard pressed to find a reason to open them.  

Bottom line is that if you make a great and interesting beer then craft beer drinkers will not only buy it, but seek it out.  

Cheers 
~ Ben