Mayday for Bombers
Large format bottles are becoming less popular among consumers, bottle shops, bars, and breweries
We were standing around our local bottle shop, Good Beer, the other day and noticing that a lot of beers we used to see exclusively in bombers were now coming in smaller formats.
Draft Mag recently listed a number of beers that used to come in 22-ounce or larger sizes and now come in 12-ounce bottles or cans.
- Lagunitas High-Westified Imperial Coffee Stout
- Southern Tier Pumking, Choklat, Creme Bruleeand Unearthly IPA
- Avery Maharaja and Reverend
- Firestone Walker Sucaba, Parabola, Velvet Merkin
Green Flash owner Mike Hinkley stated in an interview with Paste Magazine that his brewery was considering dropping the 22 oz. format entirely, in which he breaks down a lot of the trends happening in customer palate and the bottle shop industry that indicate why this format is becoming so unpopular.
That format is really dying out. The reason we would get out of 22 oz bottles altogether is the marketplace for them. It’s really hard to put new products into a shrinking market. Price point is part of it; a lot of the same beers are now in six packs at better price per ounce. Retailers are shrinking their space and dedicating it toward six packs, and customers are moving toward sessionable beers. DIPA is shrinking as a category while regular IPA is growing. And there’s so many breweries with growler and crowler fills that the “experimental” aspect of trying new beers has gone in that direction rather than 22’s.
From a trading perspective, I think this is a great trend all around. Bombers are heavy and awkward to pack safely. Moving a lot of these beers from the pricey bomber format to cheaper cans or 12 ounce bottles will also make it easier to match “dollar for dollar” trading value.
Still, bombers will not be going away entirely- bombers are still the preferred format for bringing to bottle shares to share with a lot of people, and certain prestigious breweries like Hill Farmstead and the Bruery will still be able to command the higher price point without impacting consumer demand.
