Digital whispers reached us of rumblings at Chang HQ. Something was afoot. We caught glimpses of new labels and a different bottle on social media. Apparently, a renowned designer called Alex Trochut was involved.

Then, we saw this video: https://www.facebook.com/GoGetDrink/videos/1296002543809387/

Chang has released a limited edition magnum. A magnum is a 1.5-liter bottle, which usually holds wine or Champagne. They are sometimes used for beer as well. Some breweries, mainly in Europe, sometimes sell their beer in magnums. Yet those are finer, crafted, small production brews, nothing like Chang.

Correct us if we’re wrong, but we are getting the feeling that Chang is trying to make their beer look more luxurious than it is. And to be honest, the bottle and its label do look impressive, yet it’s still Chang inside, isn’t it? It feels like putting a Ferrari sticker on a Honda. Don’t get me wrong; Honda’s are fine cars, yet they aren’t Ferrari’s.

We would also like to mention that -we’re sure our readers have noticed this as well- you don’t need a corkscrew to open a Champagne bottle. In fact opening a Champagne bottle with a corkscrew is quite dangerous. The pressure inside the bottle can launch the cork quite forcefully. If it hits someone it can be quite painful, so a cork with a corkscrew in it being launched is certainly not desirable. Pouring the beer into flutes afterward also seems a little odd to us at first, although a light beer has similar properties as Champagne so using a similar receptacle makes sense.

We have some mixed feelings about this whole business. The bottle is nice but it doesn’t fit the product. Why doesn’t Chang keep the lovely label and get rid of their delusion of grandeur?

As always, we’d like to hear your thoughts.