3L Beat, what is the point?

I don't get it either. I've seen some insanely outrageous offers for the 3L Beat bottle. I don't know when I would ever want to consume 3L of Beat in one sitting.

If I ever got my hands on one, trading it would be the biggest no-brainer since beads for Manhattan Island.

 

either someone really wants to show off at a beer event or they want it for a special occasion like a wedding or something.

 

It may be the same when it goes into the bottle...but, as live beer, is likely to be somewhat different when it comes out based on (among other things) time in the bottle and storage conditions (position and temperature).

It's a well known brewing principle that changing sizes and shapes of fermentation vessels does change the end product. This follows the same concept, but I expect the differences are less noticable.

Could most of us pick those differences out? Probably not. But I've talked to people (e.g., Jean Van Roy and Armand Debelder) who have far more experience with things of this nature and who feel that lambic and gueuze age better in larger format bottles (interestingly, both seem to think that 1.5 L magnums are best).

Beatification may be the closest example of a commercially available American made beer that fits the mold of a Belgian lambic (no, I don't want to go into that nomenclature discussion), so it may well follow the same pattern.

 

it's like anything else, rarity rules all + people love large formats for some reason. sort of like how BCBS Bombers are more valuable than 2 2009 12 ouncers

I know the argument for aging, but I think of all factors that is a tiny, tiny one for most people. most people who have this bottle for 10 years are doing so just b/c they are scared to open it for .rar reasons, not b/c they are specifically aging it for 10 years

I think people getting this for something like weddings is...strange. if you want something huge and dramatic there are plenty of other great choices that don't cost so much

 

I agree that it's silly to pay such a premium for the large format but hey, it's festive to pour from a 3 liter bottle at a party.

I brought a 3 liter bottle of cheap wine once to a BYO restaurant for a party of 12 people and everyone got a kick out of it. The waitstaff couldn't stop talking about it.

But the funny thing is, I would never serve 3 liters of beat at a party. I would love it but most of my family and friends would cringe at the thought of drinking sour beer.

 

Agree its festive...but there are other novelty huge beers you can easily go buy. Which I'm sure would be bigger crowd pleasers than beat.

 

6L Cuieux sit on the shelves for years. Format isn't everything...

Beat is one of the best American sours and there are ~23 3L in existence. All this logic about it being the same as the small format is ridiculous and irrelevant. Beer trading as a whole is the same damn concept. People will trade equally good beer for one another. They will also send 10x plus the cost and volume for beers from small batch, obscure breweries. Why would it take 10 parabolas for a bourbon barrel dark lord? No one is asking that question...

 

basically agree with that. in the end rarity rules all for many people. it's why people would pay thousands of dollars / trade ridiculous stuff for one off Loons which might not even be very good.

it's why I personally draw the line at some point where I would be forced to pay specifically for rarity. I'd rather have 5 great beers than 1 great beer of which there is less of in the world. the 20 or 30: 1's for the 3L Beat's are just insane to me. this is a case where if you just want 3 liters of Beat, it's not hard to find. if you want the .rar specifically and having that pre-poured into 1 bottle, that is very hard to find.

but then you aren't really talking about drinking and trying beer being a hobby, you are now a beer collector.

 

I know of 3 trades for the Beat 3L including mine. All of them were very slightly over the volume; the beer just happens to also be highly coveted. You are saying a "a collector" is someone who trades more volume for another beer. About 90% of the FT up currently are offering double+ the volume (look at all the offer for Fuzzy). Nothing is unique about the Beat 3L or any RR 3L that doesn't apply to all trading. The bottle is rare, the format obviously can change the liquid and it trades for other rare beers.

 

Somebody gifted me a 3L Supplication, which is one of my favorite RR beers. They could have given me the same volume of Supplication in 375ml bottles. But at a big party we through for both beer nerd friends and regular friends before we moved away, the 3L bottle made for a great time. Special occasion, it was festive, and nothing was "beer collector" about it. Beer friends talked about how it had aged and loved the fact that there was enough Supplication to have multiple glasses. Non beer nerd friends found the novelty of the whole thing to be quite fun, even though some didn't particularly like the beer. Numerous parties in both groups were taking pictures of giant 3L bottle phallus as the night went on and many more beers were opened. Again: it's festive.

 

I was referring to offers like this, where were clearly way over volume, and were probably enough to get 6 or more liters of Beat in small bottles. to me at that point you are just collecting what's rare.

re: fuzzy, I don't think that's a great analogy b/c again that's not a beer that is easy to get in one format and ridiculously hard in another. if you just want Beat it's not hard to get.

 

totally agree with that. I get that massive bottles are festive. but you can have festive at a much lower cost than an uber rare 3l beat.

 

trading for a 3L Beat is very different from other trading because the same beer can be had for much less. i saw a trade go down for a sixtel of BCBS and a PVW 23. probably close to $2000 worth of alcohol. i get the whole festive thing but beer is getting to be more like beanie babies than it is a festive thing.

 

What I don't think some folks understand is that the format is not the only difference. Just like wine where large formats age longer the same case has been made for beer. Whether its the enhanced liquid to oxygen ratio or something else, it has a different life and taste.

 

yeah but I have a hard time believing the "aging benefit" is more than a 5% reason why people are going so nuts to trade for these bottles

 

and i have a hard time believing there is a noticeable difference in taste between Beat poured from a 375ml and Beat poured from a 3L. ill probably never know though, maybe ill try it with a different beer.

 

Has Vinnie ever made comments on how the different formats may change the beer? Its not like he has ever recommended the wild ales be aged long term, to my knowledge. Anyone actually tried side by sides with the different bottle formats after a couple years? How many years have they been releasing 3L bottles?

 

on their site RR says

"On average we feel our barrel aged beers will age up to 5 years."