German Man Invents World's Strongest Beer (25.4%)

[matcom]

<snip>

A German brewer has concocted what he says is the world's strongest beer, a potent drink with an alcohol content of 25.4 percent that is served in a shot glass.

"Everyone who has tried it is enthusiastic. It tastes like a quirky mixture of beer and sherry," said Bavarian brewer Harald Schneider.
Schneider, who lives in southern Germany where beer is a tradition, said his beer fermented for 12 weeks for an alcohol content twice that of Germany's other strongest beers.

"People will only be able to drink two or three glasses, otherwise they'll drop like flies," he said.

Schneider expects the holders of the world's strongest beer, the Boston Beer Company, to put up a fight.

"I'm pretty sure the Americans have something up their sleeve."

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16573407-13762,00.html

[matcom]

1. kick for the Germans

:bounce:

[Squatch]

2. Beer was "invented" thousands of years ago.

And, to put a fine point on it, this would no longer be considered a beer, but a barley wine.

------
Aroma:
Moderate to intense fruitiness; presence of hops (English varieties) may range from mild to assertive. A caramel-like aroma is often present.

Appearance:
Color may range from rich gold to very dark amber or even brown. Often has ruby highlights. May have low head retention.

Flavor:
Fruity, with a great intensity of malt. Hop bitterness may range from just enough for balance to a firm presence; balance therefore ranges from malty to bitter. Some oxidative flavors may be present, and alcohol should be evident.

Mouthfeel:
Full-bodied, with a slick, viscous texture. Gentle smooth warmth from alcohol should be present.

Overall Impression:
The richest and strongest of the English Ales.

History/Comments:
Usually the strongest ale offered by a brewery, and often vintage-dated. Normally aged significantly prior to release. Often associated with the winter or holiday season. Although a hoppy beer, the English Barleywine places less emphasis on hop character than the American Barleywine and features English hops.

Ingredients:
Well-modified pale malt should form the backbone of the grist, with judicious amounts of caramel malts. Dark malts should be used with great restraint, if at all, as most of the color arises from a lengthy boil. English hops such as Northdown, Target, East Kent Goldings and Fuggles.

Vital Statistics:
OG: 1.080-1.120+

IBUs: 50-100 FG: 1.020-1.030+

SRM: 10-22 ABV: 8-12+%

Commercial Examples:
Anchor Old Foghorn, Young’s Old Nick, Fuller’s Golden Pride.

[matcom]

3. now your just making my head hurt

open.pour.gulp. :D

[Squatch]

4. Well, these world strongest beer competitions are impractical

chemistry experiments. All they are doing is using yeast to their highest alcohol tolerance. The article is not very technical, but I wonder what strain they used?

I mean, it's a pretty neat test of the brewer's art, but highly impractical.

Who wants to drink a malt beverage (besides whisky) from a shot glass?

Anyways, that's jut my opinion. I'm sure I'd belly up to this beer if somebody put a glass....er shooter...in front of me.

[blindpig]

6. Dogfish Head Worldwide Stout

Batch they came out with about 5 years ago was 23%! Wonderful stuff, we treated it as brandy and split a 12 oz bottle. About $13 a bottle. Subsequent batch was only 19%

Not what you want after cutting the grass.

[Squatch]

7. My favorite brewer in the US is Dogfish Head.

Luckily, it's only a three hour drive, on the way to the in-laws.

Their 60 Minute IPA is a wonderful summer quaffer and their creativity with other beers (like the R'aison and Midas Touch) is really avant-garde.

[seemunkee]

9. Dogfish head 120 IPA comes in at 20%

and is most tasty.

From what I know they continually add sugar to the fermenter to keep the yeast active. I've seen a clone recipe but have not tried it.

[Squatch]

11. Not the sugar...they continuosuly feed hops using a device they

created for the task. Sir Hops-a-lot, they call it.

[seemunkee]

17. Wrong

They need to feed sugar to the fermenter(post boil) to get the gravity that high. Yes they add hops every minute during the boil, but that doesn't affect the gravity.

[Squatch]

20. No, that's what the mash is for.

The mash extracts sugars from the malt, pre-boil.

From Dogfish Head

Our family of Indian Pale Ales includes the 60 Minute I.P.A., the 90 Minute Imperial I.P.A.,
and the 120 Minute IPA.
All feature our unique continuous hopping program, where they receive a single hop addition that lasts over the course of the entire boil (60, 90 and 120 minutes respectively).

[seemunkee]

23. You can't get enough sugar from mashing to get the alchol that high

That is why they add sugar. On a homebrew forum I am on another member was told that by workers at Dogfish head. They add sugar to the fermentor.

[Squatch]

24. Well, hell's bells...

The stuff below the bouncy smiley is wrong. Here's what I found out:

For something like the 120 Minute IPA and the World Wide Stout - how do you get that much alcohol? There has to be either some special process (oxygenation for several days while adding more wort, etc.) or really kick ass yeast. Can you shed some light on that for us?
Andy Tveekrem: Actually it is several kick ass yeast strains. And we feed the beer during fermentation with sugars.

:bounce:

Try this:

1) Mash with a very large grain bill.
2) Sparge
3) Boil for a long time.

What happens to a portion of the water in the wort? What happens to the sugar concentration?

That's right, a portion of the water evaporates, causing the wort to rise in gravity (in this case to 45 Plato).

Dogfish does not add sugar except to their off-center beers like the R'aison, Immort Ale, and Midas Touch.

[BiggJawn]

18. No sugar in Hops.

Hops were first introduced as a flavouring, then they found that hopped beer kept longer than non-hopped. Preservative qualities in the Humulin...

Yeastie Beasties eat sugar, not hops.
They piss Alcohol and fart Carbon Dioxide, too. Ain't nature wonderful?
:beer:

[Squatch]

21. And, where do you think the sugar comes from in the wort?

From grain...they extract it in a process called mashing. The 60, 90, and 120 refer to the amount of time they continuously hop the wort during the boil.

[BiggJawn]

25. And this has WHAT to do with Hops????

Would you concur that someone who would know that the Latin name for Hops is "Humulus Lupulus" and that the active ingredient is called humulin MIGHT know a few other things about the Brewer's Art?

Hops contibute NOTHING to the alcohol content of the mix.

We sometimes had to add sugar to a batch if we had "stuck" fermentation because of not enough sugar in the Malt. Extra sugar would increase the alcohol content, but since we brewed for flavour, not shit-faced-ness, we didn't use it.

Do you believe that "Bock" beer is the junk they scrape out of the bottom of the vats once a year, too?

You're a "connoisseur". Listen to what a former Homebrewer has to tell you.

[blindpig]

12. Lucky you

most of their high octane products are illegal in this wretched state. My last taste of 90 minute was in Mexico a few weeks ago, by way of Tuscon. The efforts to get at good beer are getting out of hand!

[AllegroRondo]

5. My god -what kind of yeast did they use?

Normal beer yeasts usually die if the alcohol content get above 13% or so.

[blindpig]

8. champagne likely n\t

[seemunkee]

10. White labs has a high gravity yeast

http://www.whitelabs.com/gravity.html
they mention it being capable of going to 25%

[Redstone]

13. Nope. Not true. There was a beer back in the 1980s called

"Maximator Achtunzwanzig" that was 28% alcohol (hence the name). Haven't seen it in a long time, but several bars in Philadelphia carried it.

Redstone

[patcox2]

14. Some of you may be confusing "proof" with "percentage."

"Proof" is double the percentage, thus a 14% alcohol beer would be a 28 proof.

There are a number of german "eiswines," beers which achieve high alcohol content by freezing. "EKU Kulminator Urtyp Helle 28" was one that was 14%, 28 proof.

[Squatch]

15. I think you may be the one confused, here.

"Eiswein" is a beverage made from grapes that have been harvested after the first frost. It is not beer. Perhaps you meant to write "Eiskbock"?

And, from the article, it clearly says "percent" and not "proof", a term reserved for rating the potency of distilled spirits.

White Labs produces a yeast strain that can, under ideal conditions, ferment a wort (unfermented beer) to high ABV without freezing or making an "Eisbock".

[patcox2]

19. You're right, I meant Eisbock

But I do think that references to some of the other beers mentioned here might be confusing the proof and the percentage. In the early 80s, Kulminator bragged of being the strongest, and until these recent monstrosities, I don't think there was anything that came in at even close to double the strength of the EKU.

[Zuni]

16. it probably tastes like ass

beer with a very high alcohol content tastes like yeast with vodka mixed in. :puke:

[LynneSin]

22. You're doing it as a shot - not much chance to actually taste the stuff

Just chug it down and chase it with a coke

ass-taste problem solved!!

[Merrick]

26. The higher they go, the more sweet they get. ick

there's a happy middle ground between taste and alcohol content that ends somewhere around 8%. All the ones I've tried that are higher are typically very sweet which is just nasty.