Bottled Leffe

Apr 17, 2007 1 Replies

I posted a while back about the taste difference between the French 25cl bottles and the 75cl bottles available in the UK.



Could anyone check that I'm not imagining this: there is a definite taste difference between the 33cl bottles available in the UK and the 75cl bottles available here. Whilst not quite as significant as the difference between the 25cl bottles and the 75cl bottles it is clear. It tends in the same direction too - the 33cl bottles have a creamier taste and actually make for a very nice drink (unlike the crap by comparison 75cl bottled brew.)



Assuming that the bottles contain the same brew the difference must be down to a quality associated with the smaller bottles. Could there be some sort of pseudo bottle conditioning process going on whereby smaller bottles have some significant. It sounds totally illogical to me but is it possible?



Btw, the 33cl bottles seem to almost always be on special offer in Asda or Tesco - 3 bottles for £3 making Leffe £3 a litre (cheaper than buying 1 *



75cl bottle although hugely expensive compared with the French price of about £1 a litre!)

I've had various bottled & draught Leffe (in the blonde, brune & radieuse?) & never noticed any major difference - I don't remember ever tasting the different sizes side by side though.

Bottle-conditioning? - unlikely.

Taste difference between different sized bottles? Well it's been talked about in terms of wine for a long while (1.5l magnums are said to age better than 70cl bottles) but as to whether a filtered/ pasteurised beer would taste noticeably different - I would be a bit surprised, but your taste-buds seem to be suggesting its possible.

The bottom line (metaphorically, not price-wise) is that I'd still much rather spend time drinking & talking about any other of about a gazillion other beers in the world (or just Belgium!) than this one - e.g Westmalle Tripel, Orval, Duvel, etc. (while also not supporting the company that closed the Boddington's & now Hoegaarden breweries while having them both brewed elsewhere yet continuing to cash in on their heritage & previous geography - "the world's local brewer - me a**e!" as Jim Royal might say) cheers MikeMcG

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