Saturday 3 March 2012

Too much bottle

A while back I won a prize of a 750 ml bottle of Marble Saison Special, weighing in at a hefty 9% ABV. There seems to be a vogue for these big bottles, but surely they’re a most inappropriate form of packaging, especially for beers of that kind of strength. They’re not screw-caps, so you can’t drink half and keep the rest for later, meaning you’re faced with having to consume what is effectively the equivalent of a full bottle of wine at a sitting. And, given that it’s bottle-conditioned, you can’t even pour out one glass and stick the bottle back in the fridge, you have to find a vessel into which you can decant the whole lot. A 330 ml or 375 ml bottle would make a lot more sense, and also be more affordable.

Although I had let it stand for a couple of months, and the beer appearing clear from outside, removing the cork caused some fobbing and disturbed the sediment, so I ended up with some very murky beer in spite of careful pouring. A good thing I’m well-stocked with bogroll. This seems to be my fate with any bottle-conditioned beer produced by micro-breweries. I can’t comment on the taste – it was an overpowering mixture of yeast and alcohol. Sadly, not a beer I would spend my own money on.

7 comments:

  1. its a myth that yeast causes diarrhoea, plus just find someone to share it with as most people would a bottle of wine. can't say i had any fobbing issues with mine, which i got at source in the marble arch.

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    1. Why only make the beer available in these huge bottles, though? Most bottles of beer are drunk by one person, and not everyone has an extreme-beer-drinking friend to split one of these with. The original Decadence came in 330 ml bottles, which seems like an excellent size for a strong stout.

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  2. So the old boys who used to dump the yeast from their bottles of White Shield in the glass on the grounds that it "kept them regular" were totally wrong, then?

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  3. its often suggested that bottle conditioning in 750ml produces a better flavour profile than a smaller bottle...saison dupont is allegedly better in the bigger format

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  4. I have drunk quite a few continental beers that have yeast in the bottom of the bottle. when asked whether or not to add the yeast by the barman, I have said yes and suffered no ill effects. I may of course have a cast iron backside!

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  5. Should have given it to JC. He loves anything foreign and murky.

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  6. "A good thing I’m well-stocked with bogroll" You would have to be, for more reasons than one, drinking pongy muck

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