It took them at least ten years, but Rogue Brewery finally swallowed its pride and switched back to the small bottle format that it once packaged its big beers (before “big beers” was even a term) in, the Russian Imperial Stout, Old Crustacean (a barleywine), and Imperial India Pale Ale. Wait, pride, who am I kidding? A sense of right and wrong? In business? No, surely it was a bottom-line issue that forced them to turn back the clocks; the large, ceramic bottles must not have been pulling in the dough, which would not be surprising given the exorbitant price point they were selling at. So now, with the “new” small format, how are the contents inside these Liliputian packages?
Welcome back, old friend.
I just happened upon a rack of the new Russian Imperial Stouts at my local package store, and was honestly blown away by how small they were. The image above tells the whole story, with the RIS on the far left, followed by 12 and 22 oz. bottles. The difference is astounding. Having grown up collecting the tabs from 12-oz aluminum cans, then drinking different (better) beer from the same containers a decade later, followed closely by 12 oz. glass bottles, and the occasional bomber thrown in for good measure, when they could be found, a 7 oz. bottle is truly a sight to behold today.
7 fl. oz.? 7 fl. oz.
Given the trends of barrel-aged beers, sour beers, collaborations, and the like, is packaging the next great frontier for creativity and improvisation within the craft beer community? Brewers have been releasing special beers for a number of years in 22 oz. bottles, as well as corked and caged bottles, paper-wrapped, cave-aged, neck-labeled, numbered, signed, and perhaps even blessed. I mean, what new frontiers could brewers possibly explore BUT packaging at this point? In the past two years, more brewers have started to package their big beers in four packs, at a higher price point than a typical six pack. Samuel Adams Double Bock is a perfect example of this. A six pack once sold for $8.99, while the more recent four packs cost $7.99. And now we have 7 oz. bottles. What’s to stop somebody from releasing a special (a highly subjective term) beer in 50 ml. nip bottles? The tickers (a ticker is one who must have every new beer, all the time, so they can ‘tick’ off the beer and move on to the next one, like an automaton with a beer belly) would absolutely love this, not only because they could power through a crap-ton of online beer reviews, but also because they would be easy to send to fellow tickers around the country, perhaps the world, at the going, hypetastic rates. Hell, a nanobrewery could make its name alone on its nip bottles of highly ticktastic beer.
Nonetheless, how does this RIS taste from the small bottle? Fine, but I doubt I’ll buy another. I wasn’t blown away by it, and if something is being sold in such a small format, it had better knock my socks off, and this didn’t. I wish I had an old bottle in the small format to compare this to. Still, I applaud Rogue for biting the bullet and returning to a format that people had always preferred.
What do you think the verdict is here:
So, what's the verdict?
Wow. The last time I saw a 7 oz. bottle was 20 years ago, and it was full of Michelob. I didn’t realize craft brewers did the hobbit bottles.
I think Rogue may have abandoned those ceramic bottles awhile ago. At least, the ’09 Double Dead Guy I bought a few months back was very cleverly painted to look ceramic, but was most definitely glass.