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Some time back I decided to embrace full beer-nerd status and start collecting the bottle-tops of beers I’ve sampled from around the world. I recently picked up a few the PH’s new bottled Hop Head and Plain. In terms of taste, I reckon they’re both great in their own way and although they come in an unfortunately small size, the packaging and presentation is pretty good too. But I do have to admit to being a bit disappointed that instead of distinctive branded caps, they’re sealed with generic black bottle-tops. In other words, we’ve got two new good Irish-produced beers on the Irish market but we’re no richer for Irish bottle-tops! With the honourable exception of O’Hara’s, the same goes for the tiny handful of bottled Irish craft beers (Whitewater and Hilden use unmarked gold ones). I know that bottling beers is a big step for a small brewery and that splashing out on stylish bottle tops probably just makes an already expensive business more costly, but it’s seems a shame.

Maybe this is just consumerist bullshit - after all, in the world of decent beer presumably it’s the contents of the bottle, not the lid, that really counts? On the other hand, if a brewery makes the effort to produce and market a bottling line, is it not worth going the extra mile and designing a distinctive cap? Any thoughts?

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designer caps = higher prices yeah?

To the best of my knowledge the black crown cap on the HopHead and Plain are only a temporary measure.I heard on the grapevine that their intention is to bottle it eventually with a 'grenade' style pull ring cap.
[img:3h3s4se2]http://i.imagehost.org/0569/grenade_cap.jpg[/img:3h3s4se2][/url:3h3s4se2]
Don't know if that's changed or not but I'd say if/when that happens they will be printed with something suitably clever.
P.S have you seen the Meantime IPA cap (the metal cap thats above the cork on the 750ml bottle)little message saying " We have an i for detal"
Makes me laugh everytime I see it. <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt="" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: -->

Thanks for the info - I have to admit, I like the term 'grenade style' cap but the ones I've seen on German and American beers look pretty flimsy, like red tinfoil on a milk-bottle top or somethin. Why can't they just do a neat little 'PH' on the black crown top??

If they want something easy to open but still have some nice caps then screw tops would be a good idea.

&amp;quot;Saruman&amp;quot;:1i1q031s wrote: If they want something easy to open but still have some nice caps then screw tops would be a good idea.[/quote:1i1q031s]I'd say it's more cost effective to order specialty caps rather than specialty bottles.