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World's Strongest Beer - 32%

dogjones

Graduate Poster
dogjones
Joined
Oct 3, 2005
Messages
1,303
OK, so they've launched a 32% beer:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/north_east/8380412.stm

The thing is, how the hell is this possible? I thought alcohol content eventually kills the yeast, which is why you don't get wines/beers above a certain percentage (in the teens I think). After this point, distillation is necessary if you want a stronger drink.

Is this really a beer? Are they using some form of superyeast? Thoughts??
 
I suspect there isn't anything in the definition of beer that would preclude distillation after the brewing process. I've seen beers in the 20s before, but I don't know what the limit is with just fermentation. Unfortunately, I've never tasted a good beer stronger than 10% or so, so while it has a good name, I doubt there's much else to recommend this one.

I did find this quote from the article amusing though:
"We want to know why a brewer would produce a beer almost as strong as whisky."
Click to expand...
For the same reason distilleries produce whisky as strong as whisky perhaps?
 
Cuddles said:
I suspect there isn't anything in the definition of beer that would preclude distillation after the brewing process. I've seen beers in the 20s before, but I don't know what the limit is with just fermentation.
Click to expand...

The strongest yeast I've seen dies at about 22% ABV. "Superyeast" wouldn't surprise me. Nor would simple fortification like they do to port or sherry.

I think that there is a definition of "beer" that excludes distillation; most legal codes (the UK included) distinguish between "wines," "beers," and "spirits" -- and if it's distilled, it's a "spirit" and you need a different license to produce and sell (which most breweries neither have nor need).
 
Cuddles said:
I suspect there isn't anything in the definition of beer that would preclude distillation after the brewing process. I've seen beers in the 20s before, but I don't know what the limit is with just fermentation. Unfortunately, I've never tasted a good beer stronger than 10% or so, so while it has a good name, I doubt there's much else to recommend this one.

I did find this quote from the article amusing though:

For the same reason distilleries produce whisky as strong as whisky perhaps?
Click to expand...

Yip. I haven't tasted a good beer stronger than 7%. This stuff must be utterly foul.
 
drkitten said:
I think that there is a definition of "beer" that excludes distillation; most legal codes (the UK included) distinguish between "wines," "beers," and "spirits" -- and if it's distilled, it's a "spirit" and you need a different license to produce and sell (which most breweries neither have nor need).
Click to expand...

Well, my suspicion was mainly based on the fact that this is apparently allowed to be called beer. Presumably it's as Dogjones suggests and this method is legally defined as distillation for the purposes of defining drinks.
 
I know the Germans are famous for their "fortified" wines, but I don't recall seeing any extra-potent beers over there.
Of course, the Germans are also really into their brewing purity laws.
 
dogjones said:
OK, so they've launched a 32% beer:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/north_east/8380412.stm

The thing is, how the hell is this possible? I thought alcohol content eventually kills the yeast, which is why you don't get wines/beers above a certain percentage (in the teens I think). After this point, distillation is necessary if you want a stronger drink.

Is this really a beer? Are they using some form of superyeast? Thoughts??
Click to expand...
Since beer, by common definition, contains water, yeast, malt, and hops, I suppose freeze distillation would leave some hop flavor, making it technically beer--but the yeast is long dead after about 14% alcohol...
 
Sam Adams has a strain of "Ninja Yeast" that they use for their Utopia, and that comes in at about 27% without distillation. It is possible to get that high, or even higher by creating a series of "starters".

First, you would introduce the yeast to a sugar/water solution and let it sit for a few days. This boosts the yeast content of the solution to a much higher level. Then you make a "small" beer, meaning a beer that's about 5-6% abv, and use the yeast to ferment that beer. When that beer is done fermenting, make a bigger beer(9-12%abv) and use the yeast cake from the small beer. Do this until you get to about 18% abv.

Once you hit this level, make the size beer that you want to make, and seal it into quart jars. Use a gallon to start the fermentation, and add 2 quarts every time the fermentation starts to slow down a little.

Theoretically, you can build quite a large beer like this. Of course, to offset the syrupy sweetness of such a high sugar beer, you would have to add a LOT of hops to bring the bitterness up. You would also have to really boil it down. Probably from something like 15 gallons to 5 gallons. You would need to really concentrate the wort that you are making.

Some guys on realbeer.com were talking about a building a beer this way that is stronger than Utopia. I tried to find a link, but couldn't.

By the way, there are plenty of beers over 7% that are really tasty.
 
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The telegraph is reporting this as "32% proof" which is a nonsence, but also indicates that this may be 32 deg proov, or 16% abv using US proof, which is more reasonable. Any word from the brewer?
 
Ah, the old proof thing. IIRC, US proof is simply double the ABV.

In the UK we had the Gay-Lussac scale where 175 ° proof was 100% ABV, e.g. whisky would have been labelled in days gone by at 70 ° proof, now it's 40% ABV.

It's surprising if a newspaper got this mixed up, being the inveterate boozers that they are.
 
commandlinegamer said:
Ah, the old proof thing. IIRC, US proof is simply double the ABV.

In the UK we had the Gay-Lussac scale where 175 ° proof was 100% ABV, e.g. whisky would have been labelled in days gone by at 70 ° proof, now it's 40% ABV.

It's surprising if a newspaper got this mixed up, being the inveterate boozers that they are.
Click to expand...
You're not wrong - this specialist website
 is even less likely to have got it wrong - 32% ABV it is.

Check out the video by the brewers. Something about them tells me they dreamt up this idea whilst sharing a bong, probably after a day's snowboarding.
 
I've tried BrewDog's Tokyo* at 18.2%. It's not a normal beer by any definition of the word - you wouldn't drink a full bottle of it by yourself, but it is definitely worth trying. They also make other more "normal" beers, I've had their 77 Lager, which was quite nice. They're a craft brewer with clever marketing, but they're worth checking out
 
dogjones said:
OK, so they've launched a 32% beer:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/north_east/8380412.stm

The thing is, how the hell is this possible? I thought alcohol content eventually kills the yeast, which is why you don't get wines/beers above a certain percentage (in the teens I think). After this point, distillation is necessary if you want a stronger drink.

Is this really a beer? Are they using some form of superyeast? Thoughts??
Click to expand...

Took it to ice cream factory, chilled it for a few weeks, removed ice occasionally (freeze distilling) produced ca. 500 bottles which will sell at $50.00 each. Aged in two different Scotch casks.

That way of distilling anyone can do.:):):)
 
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