How is beer packaged in Europe?

Given what I saw in Brussels on a 2 week visit a few years ago it depends on the store and neighborhood. The ones where I shopped were high end and had other things on display in the windows with all the beers on the shelves inside the store. But I saw more than one shop that had a window with all kinds of stuff stacked up and quite visible in the sunlight beating down on it.

 

I'm in Crete right now and am seeing many single 330 mL bottles while drafts go for 300 or 400 mL. What really had me impressed though are the bottles with the swing corks built right into the bottles. I'm already thrown by the dollars to euros conversion rate so I'm not sure how much more I'm throwing in for these elaborate bottles versus the beer.

Wine in the other hand, they seem to have no problem selling it at least here on Crete in cheap 1 liter plastic bottles like we see water in the states.

 

Ah, there is one classic german "mistake": Many Getränkemärkte(yes,specialized,bigger stores) often put the special offer beer directly outside- even in summer, when there is direct sunlight......
Otherwhise,it differs widely in which store type and in which country you are. Outside of the mistake mentioned earlier, german Getränkemärkte do a good job normally- they don't really have big windows and sunlight doesn't come through, the same is true for most Supermärkte as well. So you'll be fine.
Specialized drinks market are, at least in my experience, a german phenomenon-elswhere in europe, they are nonexistent or much more rare.

And as much as I love the Berlin "Spätikultur" (small shops with very long opening times where you can get drinks, small snacks, cigarettes and so on), how they treat their beers differs widely- some have it very neat in coolers and stuff, well organized, while in some it is just a chaotic mess of bottles everywhere,some in the cooler, some not- I remember one in particular which has a good selection, but screws it up by having just piles of different bottles in the middle.

And, no I don't personally think 24 small bottles is crazy for home consumption. Most germans buy 20X500ml crates for home consumption- it is seen as a standard practice here.

 

440ml is 16 old fluid ounces. The story I heard was that this was the biggest size of can the manufacturer could produce at the time they were introduced.

 

So you guys remember them, too! That was quite a sight at first ("wow, I knew they were really into their beer, but I had no idea they drank it like we do soda!" ), but eventually learned that it wasn't really a top notch product in those bottles. Still, it was easy to carry and did the trick.

I was just wondering if they still existed, or if it was just a passing fad.

 

I remember taking some on the ferry to go over to Belgium & eventually to Oktoberfest. I would be shocked if they not still something similar in Sainsbury's or Tesco's now.

 

I can't find the source, but IIRC it stems from when Guinness introduced the widget cans. The cans are standard 16oz size, but the widget displaces 1.1oz of fluid, leaving you with 14.9oz of beer.

 

The Netherlands has specialised drink markets (wine & beer) as well. As far as I've seen, they are all independent.

Just to add a couple more countries' info to your nice overview, in the Dutch supermarkets there are mostly 4-packs or singles of 330ml and 750ml bottles. Many of the beers are Belgian; a handful of Dutch and German beers are available too. There are some expensively-priced American beers such as Flying Dog (~4USD/bottle) and Anchor (similar).

In Italy the markets also tend to have singles in 330ml and 750ml volumes. There aren't too many Italian beers bottled in supermakerts; they are mostly Belgian, French and some British beers too.

 

Here in the US, Urban Chestnut sells beer in crates. 9 bottles/box.

 

I have to admit, it has been a while since i was at a dutch supermarket, american beers where not really there yet.
I saw them in offies there though, but yeah.

In my experience though, those dutch off licenses are totally different beasts compared to german Getränkemärkte, at least the few I've been in. Maybe it's just my experience, but: German Getränkemärkte are rarely specialized. They'll have a wide variety of non alcoholic drinks in crates, waters, carbonated stuff in general,maybe a bit wine and spirits, and yes, beer, some specialize,most don't, but most of the beer will be in crates, single bottle shelves are just starting to appear due to the craft movement.
When I was in a dutch specialized market the last time , they had a lot of fancier stuff in single bottles on store shelves. As well as a lot of different spirits and such, all kind of chaotic. Way different from the german way

Two more questions on the netherlands are on my mind:
Spirits have to be sold in specialized stores,right? I think I never saw spirits in a supermarket.
And still, what is up with those stubby 0,3l bottles like that:

I see them mainly for dutch beers, only rarely for better known imports (I have seen Bitburger in those, for instance), and only in the netherlands- how come? What is the story behind this? When i buy dutch beer in those in the netherlands and take it back to germany, I mostly end up loosing the deposit money because you can't return them in all other countries that use the "normal" 330ml bottles. And esp. with La Trappe its weird, because they used to have 330ml and 300ml bottles,depending on market.

 

Over the years it's gone from 330ml to 300ml for most bottles in the Netherlands. It's unlikely to find Dutch beers in 500ml bottles, if there's bottles of this size it's mostly imported German or Czech beers. 6-packs are available for some of the bigger brands in both 300ml bottles and 330ml cans but not for most of the 'craft' beer. It is very normal to offer both a 330ml and a 500ml can. When buying in bigger quantities the bottles come in plastic crates of 24 containing the 300ml size most of the time. Most supermarkets and specialty stores have jumped on the craftbeer trend by making bigger quantities secondary to single bottles. It's very normal to fill your basket with all singles.

 

In this country almost all bottles are sold individually...Most British ales are sold in 500ml bottles, but newer, fashionable breweries who make American or stronger types of beer ('craft beer') often put them out in 330ml...which can be very expensive...The concept of buying all one's bottled beer in 'packs' is alien to most British ale drinkers (apart from big brewery lager, cider etc.). A few cans of 'craft beer' (two Brewdog beers) are now in larger supermarkets, and there seem to be more regional breweries putting their 'American style' beer in 330ml cans, but most cans are larger...

 

Yeah anything over 20% ABV has to be sold in special stores under special regulations in The Netherlands. No idea about those bottles, but they are very common for lagers here.

I love that in most European countries you can get everything as singles. A lof of thinks are nice for the tick but you'd never want a whole 6pack of them. France is a noticeable exception though, as lots of supermarkets sell beer in 6, 12 or 24 packs.

 

Ah I misunderstood what you were getting at—right the spirits are not sold in supermarkets. You mention the 300ml bottles—my favourites are the 200ml bottles Duvel sometimes uses. Maybe some other brewers too. They are so tiny! I can't find a photo, but they are like a little toy beer. So cute.

 

200ml DUVEL bottles?!?!? never ever heard or seen those, fascinating........! I mean, duvel is bottle coniditioned, how does this work or how is it even commercially viable in such tiny bottles? And how do they look like?
As I said, I know 200ml or 250ml bottles only from cheap,crappy,pale lagers sold in france, belgium,luxemburg..
They look like this

and feel really lightweight..

 

Wait, just realized, I have seen 250ml bottles in belgium and even bought them- Ciney and Durchesse de Bourgone come in tall 250ml bottles that look elegant and nothing like the cheap french ones- maybe duvel comes in those too? Esp. Duvel groen?

After googling a bit-yes, Duvel Groen comes in exactly those bottles!Odd-so, either there is really good beer in 250ml bottles-or really crap beer

 

Makes sense that they could/might do that since IIRC the Green was first introduced into the US in keg only and so was not bottle conditioned and there's be no need to then bottle condition it if they want to put it into bottle form.

 

Bottled beers in the UK are almost always sold as singles.

 

How about 180ml Duvel?