Beer Forum

I have a question. I was reading the NHC entry guidelines, and they say that cork and wire bottles are acceptable for Belgian entries, but the bottle must be between 10 and 14 oz. I tried several searches and it looks like just about all the bottles and corking information out there pertains to 750 ml bottles.

Does anyone know a source for such bottles, or have a altenate method for submitting high carbonation beers to competition?

I have acquired many 375ml Belgian bottles over the years from commercially bought beers. Most of them are green but I use them for my high carbed Belgians that I may enter in any comps.

The cellar crew at the competitions really love the 375 corked and caged bottles. With the right hole saw, they fit right in:

TastyMcD wrote:The cellar crew at the competitions really love the 375 corked and caged bottles. With the right hole saw, they fit right in:

That's some funny shit right there...


Mylo

NMWildAles wrote:I have acquired many 375ml Belgian bottles over the years from commercially bought beers. Most of them are green but I use them for my high carbed Belgians that I may enter in any comps.

Yeah, it looks like archiving spent bottles from purchases is the easiest route. I just got a couple bottles of RR Supplication last week so I have 2 if I'm in a pinch.

On the green bottle front, I really wish they'd stop that. I just opened a $10 bottle of completely skunked Dupont Saison a week ago. I was not happy to say the least.It tasted like someone blended saison with skunked heineken.

TastyMcD wrote:The cellar crew at the competitions really love the 375 corked and caged bottles. With the right hole saw, they fit right in:

That's a great pic Tasty. Made me laugh.

But what the hell are you supposed to do with a high carbed belgian? You risk blowing a regular bottle up. I'd think that wouldn't make the competition people to happy either.

Zen_Brew wrote:But what the hell are you supposed to do with a high carbed belgian? You risk blowing a regular bottle up. I'd think that wouldn't make the competition people to happy either.

That's a good point Zen. I somehow was in charge of cellaring over 1700 entries last year for various competitions and the only pattern I saw in broken bottles was poor packaging. I didn't see any particular style that would arrive broken. I can't speak with any authority about how much pressure a standard 12 ounce longneck will hold. I know that when I send my Belgian Golden Strong to a competition, it's at about 3.5 volumes and, possibly through luck, it's always made it there. I don't judge but someone who did could speak to how often they judge a highly carbonated Belgian in a longneck.

Aside from how a beer in a 375 wine bottle stands out on the competition table compared to longnecks, I have no problem with the container itself, just the cork and cage and it's resultant height and vulnerability. If they were capped, no problem. I could see myself using them just for the reason you mention. And they might give the impression that they contain better beer than a longneck. I know, I'm a competition whore.

Tasty