Beer at 41% abv – how can this be?

Thornbridge’s Raven is absolutely amazing, when I worked at the Deaf Institute I got them to sell Thornbridge beers as I love good craft ales.. One of the great thing about living in Manchester is the amount of places that sell really good craft ales, it’s a dream for a beer lover.

Not sure the exact ABV whereby a beer is also a barley wine, think some people have differing opinions. I know that the Trappiste ale Rochfort 10 is both a beer and a barley wine as it weighs in at about 11.3%.

I think next time I do some home brew, I will see about taking a batch out and stick it in the freezer to remove some of the water content. Could be interesting.

Thornbridge Sequoia is particularly good

It all comes down to taste, if everyone liked the same then the choice would be pretty narrow. Its just my opinion that brewdog have great marketing and that is how they sell beers. The beers that they sell aren’t great.

With regards to the OP, is the freezing of beer to increase ABV not cheating? shouldn’t beer be called beer upto the maximum fermentable limit, and then after becomes a barley based mutation of a whisky? Sorry, got my bobble hat on!

gimmick and pointlessly undrinkable, I’d imagine.
at uni we used to go to the Swan and Three (Sam Smiths) pub and the challenge was to drink three pints of D Pils (6%) in 30 minutes – marvel at it’s seemingly hallucinogenic properties – then off to the union for strawpedos. best nights ever.

That Sam Smiths Ayinger Pils stuff that brakes mentioned is surely an opiate 😀

Initial thought’s are that it is a marketing based gimmick selling something that is unnatractive at a premium. It lets some people say ‘I’ve had the strongest beer in the world yada yada yada.

The concensus from the people who have tried these appears to be that it is rubbish. So as someone said what is the point?

It all comes down to taste,

Correct

The beers that they sell aren’t great

surely a contradiction to your opening comment?

is the freezing of beer to increase ABV not cheating?

Isn’t that the Punk attitude you don’t seem to get – rules are for CAMRA

Can’t stand BrewDogs beers. I’d rather suck on a grapefruit

Those of you who think it is a gimmick have to admit that it works well since you are all on here talking about it. Free advertising. Having had some Sink the Bismarck previously, I would liken it to a whisky due to the strength.

Tactical Nuclear Penguin is more to my taste. Further down the strength scale, Tokyo* (20% or so I think) goes really nicely with sticky toffee pudding too. 🙂

I tried that Tokyo+ they did a couple of years back. 18.2%. Tasted horrible. But made a nice pint of shandy at 9.1% hahaha.
Agree with Rik though. I really like the hardcore IPA they produce.

I love Punk IPA and the recent IPA is Dead collection was brilliant. The Double American IPA sold through Tesco at 9% is far too drinkable for the strength. 🙂

Their marketing does come over a bit strong but fair play, it’s good beer (IMHO) and perhaps Camra will learn to recognise you CAN have good beer without pretending that the 1950s were the good old days.

brakes – The Swan and Three Cygnets in Durham? They don’t sell D-Pils anymore… 😥 😆

Isn’t that the Punk attitude you don’t seem to get – rules are for CAMRA

And record books surely? You can’t really call it the Strongest Beer World Record if it isn’t actually beer. Otherwise I could just get some 100% ethanol and write “Beer” on the Pyrex.

[/quote]It all comes down to taste,
Correct

The beers that they sell aren’t great
surely a contradiction to your opening comment?

is the freezing of beer to increase ABV not cheating?
Isn’t that the Punk attitude you don’t seem to get – rules are for CAMRA

Eh?

I said brewdog beers aren’t great all along. I said that the marketing is great, in that it obviously works and the gimmicks sell their product. As pixelmix said, there is a thread on it here and people are talking about it.

My freezing point is that what is the difference between a whisky and a ‘sink the bismark’type beer. A barley wine is a barley wine, so how can something stronger be called a beer?

Ok, regardless of whether you like their beer, marketing, t-shirts, fans whatever, ……do you think they’ve done/are doing a good thing for the uk beer industry. I do. They’ve taken beer outside the confines of the sandle wearing beard growing CAMRA member, beyond generic eurofizz, shaken up the traditional breweries, and helped bring beer to foodies and people who didn’t like beer before.

perhaps Camra will learn to recognise you CAN have good beer without pretending that the 1950s were the good old days

LOL. Agreed.

My freezing point is that what is the difference between a whisky and a ‘sink the bismark’type beer. A barley wine is a barley wine, so how can something stronger be called a beer?

Barley wine is a beer style like Stout or IPA, not a strength classification. The name was coined because it can be as strong as a wine, but it’s technically a beer due to ingedients, barley, hops, yeast, water. The style guidlines for Barley wine mean that most of them are around 8/9%. Plenty of IPA’s, Porters, Stouts at 8% and above but not called barley wine. But they’re all beers.

Same goes for STB, it’s brewed from barley, hops, yeast, water. It’s fermented using yeast, rather than distilled as a spirit is. So it’s a beer.

It’s a crazy strong beer, and should be treated like a spirit as a result. Brewdog themselves say this. It’s served in spirit measures in their bars, and should be enjoyed like a fine malt. But it’s still a beer.

My point was that you say it’s all down to taste, and then you say there beers aren’t great, surely you mean they’re not to your taste?

I’ve had a few of the Stone Brewing beers in the Brew Dog bar in Edinburgh. The Arrogant Bastard was pretty good.

Anyone tried the Paradox Smokehead? Aged in whisky casks its was pretty interesting…

Anyone tried the Paradox Smokehead? Aged in whisky casks its was pretty interesting…

If you liked that – see if you can get hold of Red Hand’s Smoked Porter. Made from smoked malt.

Speaking of porter/stout, Dark Star Espresso Stout is pretty nice.

Speaking of porter/stout, Dark Star Espresso Stout is pretty nice.

That does sound rather tasty – I’ve been meaning to try it for a while but have never seen it in a shop to allow me to impulse buy. 🙁

brakes – The Swan and Three Cygnets in Durham? They don’t sell D-Pils anymore.

yup 🙂
Sam Smiths don’t sell it anymore – stopped in 2005 apparently

Manufacturers could claim that any spirit was a high strength “beer” as a mash is brewed to the strength at which the yeast is killed by the alcolhol content. It is then distilled by heat to produce spirit. Brew Dog et al produce a beer based spirit by the use of freeze distillation. The same end result is achieved. Water is removed and thus the alcolhol content/concentration increases (but product volume is reduced). It is really disingenuous/misleading to call these products beer. I’m sure they must be paying distilled product excises. Apparently tribes who lived/live in areas such as the artic circle discovered this phenomenon a LONG time ago when the beer/wine they brewed was stored outside in the winter and the water content froze. Natives then found they had a very potent cold booze.

I have nothing against this and would love to try TNP or similar and am a big fan of Brew Dog as a company, more power to their elbow.

the freeze distilling is old as the hills – still one or two pubs in somerset that serve their cider from open top barrels; they leave them outside so in the winter the top freezes, lift it off – drink, repeat (and normally fall over)

*Whispers* I could show you a place in Lancashire not far from STW Towers where illegal whisky is being distilled up on the fells.

Burnley?

BrewDog are all about marketing hype. Getting column inches by annoying the Portman Group by brewing very strong alcohol . Annoying Camra by calling them old fashioned , stuck in their ways etc.
IMO the beer is only just OK .
The growth is fuelled by an edgy , rebellious marketing campaign . OOhh look at me , IM cool / hard / trendy / down with da kidz /coz Im drinking Tactical Nuclear Penguine ( it tastes like tish , but just dont tell anyone )
Is all abit emporers new clothes , and eventually they will run out of steam .. Just like Double Diamond , Lamont , 4X , Caffreys , 2 dogs , Mad Dog 20/20 , Hofmeister and on and on

Gimmic beer, gimmic brewery, Everything that CAMRA is not. Whats the point? Tried sink the bismark – tastes horrible – like a bad brandy. If i want something 41% ABV, i would rather drink a good scotch.

2nd that.

I can’t drink anything that has that amount of sh!te printed on the side of the bottle. It’s just beer but they’d have you believe it’s a life style thing.

Wasn’t all that impressed with the Brewdog stuff I tried, Punk IPA and 5am Saint. Had better beers brewed in my garage 😉

I’d give the TNP and Bismarck a go though, not sure I’ve got the kit pull off those kind of ABV’s.

Never liked any bheer over 9%, just too sickly. I quite like BD’s Dirty Blonde, although the only place I’ve found that serves it dahn sahf is the Tate Modern restaurant.

singletrackmind – but CAMRA are old fashioned, the people it attracts won’t live forever, isn’t it good that new UK brewers challenge the norm, I don’t remember this much fuss when european beers saturated the market. I heard that Brewdog and others weren’t allowed to be part of the UK Beer Festival circuit because the beers had bubbles and they didn’t come in a cask, crazy. Don’t get me wrong I love all beer, one of my faves is Harvey’s Best from Lewes but I think Beer Festivals would be better with some new blood.

CountZero – I agree, too strong and it’s get’s a bit much, there’s a Brew Dog pub in Camden now and no I don’t have shares – yet 😉

41%! **** me

had a can of something from France that was 20% i think. It was rank

I have an old tom in the fridge. It’s 4 for a fiver in tesco atm.

I don’t think brew dog marketing is all that, cos I have missed almost all of it.

Do they just advertise in nuts and zoo?

I just had a 13ish% Mikkeler Imperial Stout, aged in cognac barrels. It was astonishing.

🙂

Rewski. Did i say Camra were not a bunch of old beardy weirdies who want beer thats cloudy and contains tadpoles, is off and have wrens nesting in their beards , and smell slightly of wee and wear dirty socks inside sandals and insist you have to listen to sh1t music at beer festivals?
No .
All I was trying to say is that BD go out of their way to pick at the Camra stereotype and no their beer was not ( Nor Camdems) allowed at the GBBF . IN fact it was included and pulled when the old guard found out it wasnt in a cask .
I suppose i come across negative as i personally dont like any of the beer they make , and am jealous at the rate of expansion they have managed to achieve in a few years compared to the outfit i work for.
same industry = different approach

I would like to try that CFH .
Was that at CASK?

It was. 🙂

We are trying to get in there , bit closed shop as they prefer Downton Brewery as a Hampshire supplier .
If you are at Victoria Station in the next week , stick your head into JDW and see if the have a “Russian Winter” on the bar .
Its a 5.3% proper stout and can be rather good if allowed to cask condition a tad in the cellar. One of the best things ive ever made.

What’s wrong with CAMRA exactly?

I like a real ale myself. 36, no sandals or beard last time I looked. 🙂