So far I have created, with a certain underwhelming success, The Pub Game Project to note the things people like to do when they get together for beer, The Society for Ales of Antiquity to celebrate those brewers who are brewing beers like those brewers who used to brew the beers as well as CAMWA or The Campaign For Watery Ale, to encourage movers and shakers to consider the thing that makes 87% to 96% of what is in the bottle.
The response has been, well, insignificant if I want to brag it up out of all proportions. But we cannot stop there. Now we need CAMNA, the Campaign for Nipped Ales, to demand that the higher the strength the smaller the beer. Look at that bottle of Anchor Old Foghorn. Look at the dime. That is a small bottle. Seven small ounces. A nip. And it is only an 8.8% brew. I am getting really tired of opening 22 ounce or even 750 ml bottles of 8% to 13% beer. It is too much. It costs too much, it is too much booze and it is an invitation to excess. You will say they are to be shared or saved for special occasions but I want the option to sip a little one alone on a Tuesday. Why can’t I except with a handful of beers from a few forward thinking brewers? How much would it really cost most moderately sized micros to put out a line of nips of their stronger offerings? Would it not make them more accessible, allow more people to have a try?
These are the questions asked by CAMNA – the only international organization of its stature which dares take on this cause and those lined up against it. Some may think the utter irrelevance of CAMNA to the discourse is a challenge but I say it is an opportunity – an opportunity to be the mouse that roared… in the forest where trees fall when no one in around… in a land far far away.
[Original comments…]
hurls – April 10, 2009 7:45 PM
Amen…
I was just looking at a few bottles of Alesmith something or other that I’ve got cellared — 12% ABV… maybe we gen-xers are getting weak,but I really don’t need 22 ounces of that on an average night.. or even most non-average nights.
Jay Brooks – April 10, 2009 7:49 PM
http://www.BrookstonBeerBulletin.com
My understanding of why the wonderful little 7 oz. nip bottle went away, is because the glass manufacturers hiked the price up to the point here it was more expensive than a 750 ml bottle. That’s why Anchor stopped using them and, presumably, why they’ve all but disappeared.
Alan – April 10, 2009 10:15 PM
Volume sales solves the price issue. Or can it. When I worked in Holland in 1986 we could get a 200 ml can of Heineken. And Coke comes in short 8 oz cans – why not barley wine?
bluealbum – April 11, 2009 4:13 AM
Yes, it is a problem with these big bottles.. And i would love to see smaller ones, mainly because it’s too much to drink by myself sometimes, and what if i dont like it? Plus, the small bottle in the picture is cute!
jesskidden – April 11, 2009 7:20 AM
http://jesskidden.googlepages.com/jk'smisc.beerpages
Flying Dog in Maryland is doing an 8-pack of 7 oz’ers of their high abv beers, called “Canis Major”. They wound up with the ability to bottle in that size since the previous owner of that brewery, Snyder Int’l (which owned the Hudepohl-Schoenling brands at the time) did the “Little Kings Cream Ale” there for awhile.
Unfortunately, the prices on those packs jumped up quite a bit- the same store I bought it for $8.99 in Oct. now prices them in the $12 range.
The bottle is not the same as Anchor’s- it’s a brown version of the little “long neck” LKCA famously comes in (so it might not have the same issue with price that Jay Brooks notes). The Lion also has the ability to use the bottle since they now do the contract-brewed Little Kings.
The 7 and, to a lesser extent, 8 oz. returnable/refillable (sometimes up to 42 bottles/case) was once pretty common and lasted at least into the 1970’s at a lot of PA breweries, where the returnable was long king. I sure miss ’em (they fit nicely in those side leg pocket of overalls for working in the yard or garden).
Bailey – April 11, 2009 8:09 AM
http://boakandbailey.com
Beer Nut gets very angry about bottles smaller than 500ml. I love small bottles, though, and think that more intense, darker beers (even if they’re not that strong, like Fuller’s London Porter) are best that way.
Alan – April 11, 2009 8:47 AM
I heard that Beer Nut gets very angry about cheese in aerosol spray cans, too. And ice hockey.
In the world of BBQ hot sauce, the size of the bottle can often be an indication of the level of heat. Just makes sense that I need a gallon of 13% beer like I need a pint of habanero chili (chile, chilli) pepper sauce.
iwouldntlivethere – April 15, 2009 12:43 AM
http://fermentables.wordpress.com/
Are small bottles of barleywine in imitation of Thomas Hardy’s? Another advantage to small bottles may be faster aging – smaller volume to oxygen-exchange ratio. I seem to remember something about that regarding aging magnums of wine longer than 750 ml bottles.
Gavin davis – May 21, 2010 12:30 PM
I miss small bottles, especially for strong beers. When I drink a bottled beer I want a different experience and pouring a beer from heavy pint bottle into a pint glass doesn’t do it. Half pint and nip bottles offer a certain ellegance, they add to the pleasure. I would be more likely to order a bottle of Golden Pride if it came in nip or at least a half pint bottle. I would be moe likely to order a bottled pale ale if it came in a half pint with the appropriate glass.