NYT calls out brewers on wine-ing up beer bottles

A story in The New York Times today notes that larger format bottles may be good for the brewers (in terms of their prestige and profits), but, we customers still prefer to keep things responsible. “Walk into a craft-beer store these days and you’ll see shelf after shelf taken over by giants: 22-ounce ‘bombers,’ 750-milliliter wine bottles, even three-liter jeroboams,” begins the story. It goes on to lay out the reasoning by brewers such as Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione who says, “A wine consumer in general accepts pricing stratification for 750 milliliters. They understand that an amazing bottle of merlot can cost three times as much as a bad bottle of merlot.” Happily, Michael Tonsmeire (noted homebrewer and beer blogger The Mad Fermentationist) provides a counterbalance to this story. “Priced per ounce, a 750-milliliter bottle can be twice as expensive as a six pack…It’s like having one entire wine bottle. I’m a decently sized male, and if I really wanted to, I could drink one. But that’s not a great Tuesday night.”

Alas, the Paper of Record neglected to offer a solution or two in the opposite direction. Keep beer’s price-point sufficiently high, keep it appearing exclusive or limited, and keep even big beers sessionable and affordable: bottle responsibly in 375-ml “half wine bottles” or, y’know…nips.