There’s a local company, right here in St. Louis, that is ready to change the way you enjoy some of your favorite beers. When looking at the landscape of today’s craft beer, it’s becoming increasingly more common to see special releases, and even some regular releases in 22 ounce (650 ml) bottles. The only problem is, that’s twice the size of your average beer. Unless you’re goin’ full bore it’ll take you twice as long to finish one of these bottles as your typical beer would. In most cases, these bigger bottles mean bigger alcohol content so in reality, you’ll drink them even slower than you would most beers. This is where Bomber Jackets come into play.
Bomber Jackets founder Owner Alex Nicolazzi sent us a few of the different Bomber Jackets recently so we could see for ourselves what they were all about. I own koozies. You own koozies. What makes these so different?
The Quality
The first thing you notice when you touch a Bomber Jacket is just how thick they are. The 3.5mm neoprene used in its design feels sturdy, slick and easy to grip, all at the same time. Since these are for bottle use only, they need to have a way to close around the neck of the bottle after you slip in your favorite brew. I’ve got bottle koozies with zippers on them. Nearly all have separated or had the tab pull come off so they’re useless at this point. The Bomber Jackets used a zipper but the one they’ve put on the products is thick and has a good-sized rubber tab on it to close and open it as needed. It’s not gonna be a zipper you’ll have to fuss with in two weeks. To add to the aesthetics, each jacket has a rubber square with their logo stitched onto it which classes it up a notch. If there’s one thing they didn’t skimp on, it’s definitely the quality.
The Designs
A 22 ounce beer bottle is known as a “bomber” in the craft beer world. The Bomber Jacket logo is a subtle nod to the military jackets that pilots wore when planes were flown by actual humans. Hence the logo being a bomb and one of their designs being The Mascot, a WWII inspired design also known as “shark face.” There are plenty of designs to choose from and if they aren’t enough for you, they actually do custom work for businesses with interest like the “Beer Snobiety” version shown in the main picture.
Saint Louis Hop Shop did a custom Bomber Jacket recently as you can see by the pic accompanying this section, and yeah, it turned out pretty darn cool. The other designs feature hop cones, oak barrels, the galaxy, and more. They even have some one that’s friggin’ leopard print, you guys. Friggin’ leopard print!
Why focus on big bottles?
Big bottles are becoming more and more common as a way to distribute craft beer. Heck, STL’s own 2nd Shift Brewery only distributes in 750 ml bottles. A lot of times, these bottles are consumed during a “bottle share” when a group of people all bring these bigger bottles and share them among each other. Some bottles at these shares sit out a lot longer than others after they’re opened so having a way to keep them at the best drinking temperature is a must.
If you decide to tackle one of those beauties by yourself, you have two options and neither are that great.
The first option is to drink the beer fast, before it gets too warm which doesn’t give you much time to enjoy it. Oh, you paid $25, left work early, and stood in line for 2 hours for that limited release beer? Better chug it! No thanks.
The second option is to pour yourself some, then place the beer on ice or back in the fridge until you’re ready for more. So yeah, you have to either prep in advance or get up and down off the couch as you’re enjoying a beer. Also no thanks.
But what about styles that you don’t necessarily want to lower the temp on between sips? Big stouts are an example of a beer that see dramatic flavor changes as they warm up. Sticking them on ice or back in the fridge would not be the right move for those. However, sticking them in a Bomber Jacket once they’ve had a chance to warm up a little will make sure they stay at that prime drinking temp the entire time you enjoy the beer.
But do they work?
They sure do! We drank two beers out of bottles that we slipped into Bomber Jackets: a 12 ounce O’Fallon 5 Day IPA and a 22 ounce 4 Hands Brewery Cloud 9 APA. We popped the top and each took a 4 ounce pour. Mmmm. Delicious. We waited 20 minutes and poured ourselves another sip. Mmmm. Delicious. If there was any temperature drop, it was negligible and we would’ve needed a thermometer to check it. Oh, we have a thermometer? Even better! The first pour of the 5 Day IPA showed 56.2 on my thermometer which tells me that I need a colder beer fridge. The second pour of the 5 day IPA after 20 minutes lapsed read 58.4. So in twenty minutes, you’re losing just over 2 degrees of cool deliciousness. For science’s sake, the beer in my glass from the first pour after twenty minutes was 63.5 degrees which is up over 7 degrees from when it was poured. So yeah, Bomber Jackets work.
If you like your macros ice cold, these’ll do it. If you like your big beers to stay at the best drinking temp during a bottle share, these’ll do it. If you want to buy a product that supports a local business and does all the of the above, these’ll do it.
Giveaway
Thanks for taking the time to read the review! We didn’t want to just tease you with the goodness, we wanted to make sure that TWO of you get some Bomber Jackets of your own. We’ll pick two people and each will get a Limited Edition 12 ounce Bomber Jacket and a 22 ounce Bomber Jacket of their choice (with the exception of the Eyez print). Enter our giveway that’s going on NOW by clicking here. Contest ends at 11:59pm on Wednesday, September 7th!
Established in 2015 by Alexander Nicolazzi of St. Louis MO, Bomber Jacket came into existence while sharing a Volume 3 from 4 Hands Brewery with his brother. While their focus is on 22 ounce Jackets, they offer 12 ounce Jackets and will be releasing a 750ml version of the Jacket before the year’s end.
Justin Phelps
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