Anyone up for a Beer!!..?? 41% Maybe..??

[Townyj]

I do love my beer but man are these Scottish fella's a little crazy! It's great that they are taking things head on and doing their own thing! A little on the expensive side, but oh how i would love to get my hands on any one of the beers for a taste! Tactical Nuclear Penguin! 32% or Sink the Bismark 41%!!!!

http://www.brewdog.com/tactical_nuclear_penguin.php

 

[stobes21]

It sounds as if they were only able to get the ABV up that high by freeze distilling it, which makes me wonder if you can even properly characterize it as beer anymore. I would certainly try some if given the opportunity, but I would not expect greatness.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Yeah, afaik the highest a beer can go and still be both good and beer is in the 12-15% range.

I believe Sam Adams made something that was 25% without distilling, but the words everyone I know who tried it used to describe it were "Boozy" and "unpleasant".

 

[Hawkeye5]

The Sam Adams has to be sold as liquor here in Tennessee.

 

[taprater]

If nothing else the bottle looks cool.

 

[SliceOfLife]

The Sam Adams has to be sold as liquor here in Tennessee.

What's the line? 20%?

 

[rollsrook]

The Sam Adams Tripel Bock was 17.5% at the time of bottling. The alcohol content increases over time. I still have 6 bottles of it from '98 that I break out on special occasions. It's more of a port than beer.

I forget the name of the newer one SA put out. I think it's $150 a bottle or something outrageous. It was tough enough putting up the $100 for a case of the Tripel Bock.

 

[SliceOfLife]

They made a 25% a few years back called Euphoria or something like that.

 

[Commander Quan]

This definitely stretches the definition of beer but that is still what it is, with the original gravity starting out at 1092 it probably ferments out to around 8-8.5 % ABV before freezing and scooping out the ice crystals to get to the finished product.

 

[MedicBill]

Samuel Adams Utopia.

I received a bottle for Christmas from my girlfriend. I have not opened it, as I have heard it only gets better with age. 27% ABV.

I'm a huge Sam Adams fan, sad to see these guys take the record from The Boston Beer Company.

 

[Mr. Imperial]

Brew Dog makes some weird stuff...about half of it I like, the other half is rotten.

 

[toucanlamp]

Well I think the definition of beer is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting some sort of starch source.

It isn't possible to get an alcohol strength more than a little above 10% through fermentation because once it gets to that point the yeasts which turn the sugar into alcohol can't survive anymore.

You can freeze distill something and get it up to close to 50% alcohol, and normal distillation can take it to somewhere around 95% but by that point I'm not sure it would still be beer. Can't imagine it would be too appealing to drink.

 

[VR6ofpain]

Interesting. I had some ales that were hovering a little over 10% and still excellent. I had a Stout that was 13% and about put me to sleep when paired with a pulled pork sandwich and some sunlight. It was pretty serious though. Made by Goose Island Beer Co. out of Chicago. They called it their Bourbon County Brand Stout.

I wonder if Bevmo will eventually stock this stuff....