BrewDog formally announced this morning that it has broken the world record for strongest beer.
[7/22 Update: The beer is now sold out.]
Some of you already know the nuts and bolts of the story (kudos to Beerticker.dk for discovering it) but in the end, this turned out not to be a hoax but a leak. The End of History, a 55% ABV behemoth wrapped in dead animals, is very real. The BrewDog website indicates that there are only 11 bottles available for purchase.
Depending on which animal you choose, the beer will cost you either 500 or 700 pounds and they’re not sold out yet. After currency conversion, tax and shipping, that comes out to closer to $800 or $1,100 for a bottle for U.S.-based buyers. The reason for the high sticker price is, in part, because it takes freezing out the water out of 200 “normal bottles” of beer to get just one bottle of this highly-concentrated beast of a beer (Wired).
With The End of History, BrewDog writes its last chapter in the ABV race with Schorschbräu who will likely prevail in hitting the 56% mark before long. To the mercy of some, the ABV race doesn’t look like it will be a story going into 2011. To others, and perhaps even most readers here as the poll results indicate so far, BrewDog’s trio of high octane beers have captivated beer people, endeared them to the brewery and brought in mainstream interest to the craft beer niche.
Over in the UK, the story comes one day after the BBC published a report stating that Scots drink 25% more alcohol than other Brits. This morning’s paper featured The End of History with criticism from both Advocates for Animals and Alcohol Focus Scotland.
Considering they’re just taking a beer and distilling it to the desired ABV, couldn’t they in theory get whatever ABV they wanted? Why not distill to 90% ABV?
Nevermind the fact that despite freeze distilling being established beer practice, it’s still distilling. These are barley based spirits, not beers.
Good point. They’re called grain spirits or something on the U.S. labels.
“…Scots drink 25% more alcohol than Brits.”
Sorry, but Scottish people are British. You meant to say
“…Scots drink 25% more alcohol than the British average.”
Or
“Scots drink 25% more alcohol than the English or Welsh”
What you wrote is roughly equivalent to “Texans eat 30% more beef than Americans.”
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Good call. Will fix.
Hmmmm, makes the purchasing of several bottles of Sam Adams Utopias seem practical. I wish I had the money to buy all the remianing bottles/carcasses of this swill and pour it into the toilet where it belongs.
Some quick housekeeping.
– The beer is brewed, not distilled and then
frozen, the ice is taken away and you are left
with a concentrated beer. It’s a difficult and
expensive process that’s why only the better
breweries can do this as you need a mature
yeast strain to survive the high alcohol content
[see: Eisbock]
– As for swill? Brewdog brew some of the worlds
best beers they do it extremely well. The ‘Sink
the bismarck’ despite being 41% was extremely
palatable. Also they brew for fun hence the
funny videos
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Video review of End of History!
Daniel
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