The Best Of Both Worlds — Most Things Aren’t Mutually Exclusive

Growing up in Cologne, Germany, I had always faced a big dilemma.

When buying beer, do you buy a 20 * 0.5 l crate, or a 24 * 0.33 l crate?

Bigger bottles = more beer. Source.

Smaller bottles = fresher beer. Source.

The price for both crates is the same, around 15 € plus deposit. I tend to prefer smaller bottles, because the beer is fresher and doesn’t get stale.

But when you run the numbers, you only get 8 l of beer (24 * 0.33) when you buy the crate with the smaller bottles. The larger crate, on the other hand, contains 10 l of beer (20 * 0.5). And they’re the same price.

What do you do? Pick the smaller bottles, or get the larger amount of beer?

This dilemma has haunted me all my life, and continued to haunt me until I went to the city of Hannover. There, I discovered this:

The answer to my prayers. Source.

My prayers had been answered. A crate with 30 bottles of 0.33 l each! 10 liters, in 0.33 l bottles!