I was going to point out how most whiskey drinkers eventually laugh at anything below 100 proof and often want barrel or cask strength (when we can afford it)
More than likely would taste better too. Most craft beer tastes like it was made with the pith from grapefruit, rotten soy sauce and a hand-full of wood chips from a house fire with yeast they got by sticking a finger up their butt and stirring the wort with said finger.
I think perhaps the most overlooked thing of the fun 'arms race' was the creation of nanny state in response to the tabloid sensationlisation of the strong beer they were making. Although the original was 1.1%, I feel the later edition 0.5% really set the standard for what you could achieve with non alcoholic beer - and it was originally inspired by a response to their strongest!
Actually Strongest Gin is Uncut Navy strength Gin at wopping 76% ABV, Whiskey's all over (Irish, Scotch, Bourbon, Japanese, & Canadian) can be sold as cask strength which ranges from 51-60+ % ABV.
Same distillery has already come out with an Ultra Uncut Gin at 82,5% as another distillery one-upped them with a 77% gin. Strongest whisky is Bruichladdich X4+3 at 63.5% though they've also sold it unaged at 92%. Rum is the real home of accessible high proofs though, the 60% or so they mention is really nothing special. Wray and Nephew white overproof at 63%, Plantation OFTD at 69%, numerous 151 rums at 75,5%, plenty above that with Mariënburg and River Antoine Royale Grenadian Rum at 90% topping the list, all pretty easy to get your hands on.
BEER GEEKS! PLEASE before you post about this not being the strongest beer in the world, know that the Brewmeister beers were a con and were around 40% ABV. This was tested in a lab by a journalist who questioned their integrity and was correct. Read more here: thebeercast.com/2014/05/brewmeister-lies.html (UPDATE: Brewmeister may now have achieved the strength, but still by adding ethanol which means it is not legally beer.) Please also know that (as far as we are aware) the other claims to the throne, Start the Future and the Mystery of Beer, were also made by spiking with ethanol, so again not legally beer.
If it's freeze distilled, is not a beer. It's a spirit. It requires a totally different licence. If it's been aged in a barrel for years, it's whiskey more or less. I've heard of a microbrewery who's been brewing proper beer to the 20+% mark for decades though. They've been selectively breeding the yeast to get there. Can't remember the name of the brewery or beer though.
Checked with a friend. Apparently it was Parish Brewery with Baz's Super Brew at 23%. Apparently when all this freeze distilled stuff started, he dropped out of the strong beer game saying "when they learn to brew, I'll talk to them".
@@j616s I agree to some extent - really this is ice distilled beer, its own thing and we shouldn't try to put other names to it. But really it is very different to whisky because the distillation happens AFTER barrel ageing. I'll look up Parish Brewing's efforts but these are very different approaches. Brewdog have made lots of exceptionally strong beers without distillation too.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Yeh. I came off a bit brash above. Brewdog have a lot of talent on their staff. It really frustrates me when they do something like this where they are calling a product something it just plane isn't for the sake of marketing. It doesn't do their work justice. I'd genuinely be interested to try this. But I really wish they'd call a spade a spade.
They've toned it down in recent years, but Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA was labeled 21+% the first time I had it. True brewing with regular yeast addition as the yeast died at the high alcohol content.
I'd love to see you guys "rehydrate" this beer with some carbonated water to see what it was like. I've read that some macro-beer producers freeze distill their beer for transportation, then rehydrate at the destination for packaging.
Just like making Apple Jack! Not really a beer but a freeze distillate like Brandy distilled with heat from wine. All the Beer parts are left behind and only the Methanol and ethanol is distilled. Plus whatever else is in there with a low freezing point. Going to be a hangover maker!
@@emilskriver49 I don't know, untill it goes through fractional freezing it is certainly still beer and fractional freezing is applied to other beers without putting their legitimacy in question and finally no matter how far fractional freezing is taken none of the things that are distinctive of beer are lost, only water, so how is it not beer? What is the threshold it surpassed where it stopped being beer and why should that be a threshold?
I had Roger & Out in The Frog & Parrot in Sheffield (1986) believed to be the world's strongest beer at the time (21% brewed on the premises) and that was strong enough (sold in third of a pint and a certificate for each third drunk). Smiles Brewery I think then surpassed this but now, this is insane.
Very cool. Had Sink the Bismark in one of the Brew Dog Pubs when I was in Scotland back in 2015. Thought that was strong enough. Would love to try this stuff.
Those corks are actually still somewhat popular in Germany, just without the wax seal. They are pretty neat really, because when you walk around with the beer you can easily close it again.
When in early 70s the ,Wire' closed german beer bottles had been mostly replaced by modern type bottles, my father heared in radio a radio man speaking with a brewery owner. The radioman said to brewery owner: But you must drink whole beer of new bottles, you no more can close it. The brewery owner answered: We don' t earn money with clients, needing three days for drinking a beer bottle.
Tears and a numb tongue??? As a whiskey drinker, 57.8% abv is just starting to be considered high proof. LOL Nice vid y'all!! Loved hearing about ice distilling.
I thought it would have been some sort of an Eisbock before I saw the vid. I've been looking for a good one, but they're elusive. Especially in fucking Utah... :/
There's an argument for reclassifying ice beer as malt liquor. I've had non-distilled beers with higher alcohol percentages than most ice beers though. Does the classification reflect upon the alcohol percentage or the process? And if the process, should ice distillation be included? It depends upon your reason for classifying them.
I believe it refers to the process. The best way to understand thi I have found is to refer to laws. I find lawyers, when they want to prevent people from doing something, they must provide a clear definition of what it is you cannot do. I understand politicians vote on laws, but they are actually really designed by legal experts. Why do you think the Massive Patriot Act was designed in less than 4 months...
@@heywardhollis1160 Any beer over 5% gets classified as malt liquor. It's purely a classification on strength and in no way mutually exclusive with beer.
Technically beer is labeled beer because of it being made with hops if you think about it so I think it would be still technically beer and it could be technically viewed as liquor to it's more like a liquor beer at that point
@@Quintinohthree yes it is true by law but logically is it still beer yes some of these classifications really don't make much sense because beer is pretty much just anything on the liquor that's made with hops
Absinthe is normally between 55 and 65%. Stroh 80 is the strongest thing I've ever drunk. As the name suggests it's 80% abv. The next was Especiale 151 Rum from the Dom Rep. 75.5% abv.
Yes The Rum 🍹 from The Dominican Republic 🇩🇴 is actually very strong my friend, and I know that because I am half Dominican 🇩🇴 and half Danish 🇩🇰, by the way my friend 😎😊😁😃🙂🤜🏻🤛🏻👍🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🍹🍹🍹🍻🍻🍺🍺🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
And The strongest beer 🍺 in Denmark 🇩🇰, is The Eisbock 38 beer 🍺 - Frederikshavn Bryghus - 38,03% is actually from Frederikshavn Bryghus, Frederikshavn, Denmark 🇩🇰, by the way my friend 😃😃🙂😎😁🤜🏻🤛🏻🤘🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🍺🍺🍺🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
That process of freeze distillation is also known as "jacking". That's where we get the name of spirits like apple jack. My question is, can something still legally be called "beer" if it's been distilled?
You can't really call it destillation when there is no boiling, but the main quistion is of course how you define beer. And it is mostly defined on the ingridients. Like, most and some best Belgian beers or American craft wouldn't be legaly registered as beer in Russia. Germany used to be very sceptical as well with their beer purity law. Fun fact: applejack contains some methanol, so be careful with it, kids
Real beer is made in the benelux regions, germany and uk. The rest is not realy near the same lvl..... And none of em go above the tens. So anything above 20 is ludacriss and more a licour
I like the look of this...seems nice and thick and dark like a good stout, however, it sounds like it's spiked like an exotic beer. I wonder, have you ever done an episode about barley wines? I know, when I go to beer festivals, when they have them on, there's always one that's by Marston's that sells out in a flash. It's about 9% from memory and tastes like the tastiest McVities hobnob (non-chocolate covered version) you could ever imagine :)
This was much better than I expected it to be! In the video on my channel I said it was like someone mixed Whiskey with Madeira Wine... and maybe a touch of hand sanitiser
The strongest beer 🍺 in Denmark 🇩🇰, is The Eisbock 38 beer 🍺 - Frederikshavn Bryghus - 38,03% is actually from Frederikshavn Bryghus, Frederikshavn, Denmark 🇩🇰, by the way dude my friend 😃😃🙂😎😊😁🤜🏻🤛🏻🤘🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🍺🍺🍺🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
I think they still make sensational beer and without them UK craft would have been a lot slower off the mark - but I understand the publicity issues. That said, publicity like this is enormous fun and resulted in a magic story for them and Schorschbrau
@@TheCraftBeerChannel yeah like I said their PR team is very good & you're right they've done some great things for the craft beer scene as a whole. I also like the bars, their decor. But Im just not the biggest fan of their beers, I find they don't have much balance to them, there are certainly a lot of local breweries out there making way better beer.
They definitely are a lot of publicity. But their beers and joy for beer shown through their TV show on Esquire was one of the things that got me into beer. Im forever grateful for them and definitely have a special place in my beer-heart hahaha.
I have decided today to be a constantly recovering alcoholic. You know why? My best and worst decisions were made while I was drunk. I don't think that I will ever change. I am 48 so take that into account. I don't want kids I don't want to buy another house and fix it up and I really don't want to be that social. When I was a kid my parents asked me what I wanted to be. Trashman, Butler, Hobo! I like to read and cook for people. That is it.
@@TheLottolandus I am also 48, my last job was a trashman ( binman in the UK ) and have been sober for over 9 months now. This is my 3rd and FINAL sobriety. Life is too short to be wasting it to alcohol. Guess what my current job has been for the past 4 years. A BARMAN. Yes I am surrounded by alcohol but I have a wife and 3 kids ( youngest is 16 ) to think about now. I absolutely love my job and as I have to drive 15 miles to get to it I would never drink at work anyway so I have no temptations or desire to drink now. Life is a blessing and needs to be treated as such.
About the only thing I have in my stash to compare that to is a bottle of Bookers Uncut, Unfiltered, Cask Strength Bourbon at a whopping 63.85%. It will melt the hair right off of your tongue!
I dunno, man. Booker's is stupid drinkable even at around 66%. Doesn't melt my tongue, just coats it in velvety lusciousness. Used to get it on the regular before people "found it" and the cost about doubled. One of the best bourbons on the market.
@@Vykk_Draygo Compared to the regular stuff, that is about 20pts less. This one is a 2016 bottle. Prefer Woodford Reserve and Double Oak, but this Bookers is good as well, just the initial shock on the first drink.
It's not distilled though, it's fractionally frozen. Calling fractional freezing "distilling" is a misnomer. Plenty of well-recognized beers are fractionally frozen. It's just another way to differentiate a beer, and that same process has been taken to the extreme here.
u guys r better than brewdog, even verdant is doing a nice job, so many small breweries in uk who put their hearts and souls to brewing, yet dont have big dollars,...........its all hype in todays age thats worked for brewdog..............cheers ladies.........
My first outing with friends in Belgium. Some pub in Mons, in Le Grand-Place. Beer was served in a large bowl sized glass. Probably a liter. After the second one I couldn't find my legs to walk to the bathroom. They told me the beer was 29%. I believed them. My initiation into Belgian beer. Merci!
Let me point out that any freeze distilling process leaves a lot of methanol and other bad stuff in there. When you distill using heat and/or vacuum, you can discard the head, the first bit to boil off and condense, and get rid of a lot of the methyl badstuff, because different compounds have different boiling points at a given pressure. one or two shots of that stuff isn't going to hurt you, if you don't make a daily habit of it. Same as Apple Jack. Try a session of apple jack and you will probably experience a hangover of epic fury. I dare say any triple or quadruple or more freeze distilled liquor will be as bad or worse. Take this stuff in moderation, and treat it as the novelty that it is, not as something that you really ought to drink as much of as you want. I can't imagine it being very good to taste, either, but you could probably duplicate the taste by fermenting a VERY heavy wort to yield something in the mid-teens with a bit of sugar left over, then cut it with everclear, maybe cask age it a bit. The wort will give you body, the everclear a very clean ethanol addition. Should be as safe as whiskey.
Let me counter thst it's not the absolute amount of methanol and other bad stuff in there that matters but the relative amount, which is why the industrial standards for methanol in alcoholic drinks are given in g/hl AA, the AA standing for absolute alcohol. Freeze distilling does not change the relative amounts of any constituents on a g/hl AA basis, except for water. If the beer that went in was good, the beer that comes out is no worse for it. Any resulting difference in hangover will be exclusively the result of taking in less water, not more of anything else.
@@Quintinohthree as I understand it, methanol comes from pectins which are completely absent in grain alcohol. To be prudent just drink a glass of vodka afterwards because ethanol completely dissolves methanol and makes it safe.. :)
Wrong , the relative amount of ethanol to methanol is the same as the original drink so its no worse. Plus methanol isnt produced by grain only fruit so yeah .
If your using a distilling process why not distill the fermented wort in a pot distiller, collect the alcohol and then add the fermented wort left in the pot distiller to the alcohol collected. Seems like you could beat 57.8% that way. Personally I wouldn't consider anything that's been distilled by any process as being beer.
Anyway, I like how you saw it for what it was (i.e. basically just a bit of fun) and gave them credit where its due cos people do love to hate brewdog. (also, what was that little jar that appeared next to the bottle at the end?..)
@@Quintinohthreetests I know that. I'm just wondering how it would taste with a splash of water or "dirty" as I imagine that flavor being way to sharp for my palette
Wow..Brewdog dog just push the boundaries and produce just great beer..luckily for me my nearest bar is 30 miles away i would never get anything done..😊👍🍺 cheers ..!
A standard pour of scotch (a dram) is about 35ml, so just enough in this bottle for a wee dram and it would cost the same as a dram of 30 year old Talisker.
Your video isn't doing Schorschbräu any justice. You fail to mention that Schorschbräu (Georg Tscheuschner) is specialized in making strong beer. (>12.8% ABV) Also, it seems like he received the short end of the stick. He produced the beer while Brewdog reaped all the fame for producing the strongest beer.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel it's been altered post fermentation, there's no way to ferment to that high of ABV. So technically is it still beer by standard definition ? It's a gray area if you ask me. =)
@@TheCraftBeerChannel what @oldschoolman says... beer becomes spirit when distilled. "Liquor/Spirit: an alcoholic product that’s made from a grain- or fruit/vegetable-derived sugar that’s fermented and distilled, yielding a lower water content and higher ABV"
Coming out of the still it is not whiskey yet it is actually moonshine technically. Most company’s that make whiskey do sell a barrel proof version of there product but it is usually a little more expensive. The highest proof that can go into a Barrel for whiskey is 125 proof or 62.5%abv
@@joshuacalhoun6531 Depends, if you start with at least 80% corn in the mashbill, you can call the distillate "corn whiskey" in the US, no aging required, up to 80% alcohol allowed. If you wish to call it "straight whiskey" though it has to be proofed down with water to a maximum of 62.5% to sit in a barrel or other wooden container for at least 2 years or at least 4 years if you don't want to print an age statement, and you can call it "bourbon" (but no longer corn whiskey( if it spent any time in new charred oak (in which case you may reduce the corn content to as little as 51% but you are not required to) or still call it "corn whiskey if it spent any time in any other type of wooden container. Also, despite having to enter the barrel at 62.5% or lower, there is no provision that the whiskey must exit the barrel at a given proof and indeed in hot dry climates the barrel proof can increase over time, even in the US. The US also allows blended whiskey to be a mixture of no less than 20% straight whiskey and 80% water, neutral spirit and other whiskey, and even with only 5% straight whiskey included the whole may still be called spirit whiskey, either option making it quite easy to reach high proofs. Finally, in Europe the rules are a little different and a lot simpler. Distillate may go up to 94.8% and go into the barrel at the proof it came off the still, though it must always go into a barrel and stay in a barrel at least 3 years. Imported whiskies must adhere to the same rules. Of course, all of these are outliers and whiskies of all kinds do tend not to go far above 65%
This isn't even close to being the worlds strongest beer. Brewmeister Snake Venom 67.5% Brewmeister Armageddon 65% Koelschip Start the future 60% Just a few to mention which are stronger.
This is just stupid. It's not even beer - just an exercise in beer-flavored stupidity. Wanna get the strongest beer in the world? Just grab a Bud Light and a pint of stupidity and mix them half and half. BAM! Strongest beer in the world, and will taste equally terrible as this swill.
Newcastle Amber long gone was a good drop. There now is Alnwick Amber a Northumbrian beer the Alnwick Brewmaster used to work for Scottish and Newcastle. Ok not strong but nice.
Unfortunately the beer you tried back then was actually around 40% ABV and made purely by spiking with ethanol. See the story here: thebeercast.com/2014/05/brewmeister-lies.html
Whiskey over here in America can be had at around that strength or stronger if you go to the right stores. Total wine tends to have a bunch of barrel proof bourbons, as well as other stores in my area.
@@AequitasVision I thought that one was the best of the series. Found it like really strong port - sweet berry, strong oxidation character and a lovely warming booze. Nothing on actual port, but still drinkable. This was... an experience, but not one I would repeat in a hurry.
I think the strongest beer my dad has brewed is about 5.5 and 6% naturally. He has never tried freeze distilling though, not worth his time for the most part.
@Poon Slaayer yeah, that shit is actually beyond dangerous LMFAO I never actually drink that shit, just use it for infusions to then water it down/mix it heavily
There’s Tatratea at up-to 72%. A lot of rums go up to 70-80%. There’s also absinth at up-to 90%. So yeah, there are a lot of higher alc. drinks, but you only drink 2-3 of these and you’re done 😬
"I cUt DoWn To OnE PiNt a DaY!!!!"
wHat Do yOu MeAN tHeN whY Am I oN tHe flOOr?
@@petecontos4803 jolly good for you sir. No one gives a rats arse so jog on
Lol
I only had half a shandy of this would be enough to put you over the limit.
"I only had one pint, officer."
"What seems to be the officer, problem?"
Beer actually OPENED at 11:45 in the video.
people like you are the true heroes 🙌🙌
Not the heroes we deserve, but the one we need!
Clara 😂 XD 😂
Our apologies for waffling.
The Craft Beer Channel 🤣 No worries, just a PSA. You guys rock!
On the % remark too, I'm an employee at BrewDog - and I can tell ya', our Gunpowder gin sits at 57% too, so Gin most certainly gets that high!
I was going to point out how most whiskey drinkers eventually laugh at anything below 100 proof and often want barrel or cask strength (when we can afford it)
A lot of cask strength whisky is around the 60 % mark as well.
@@RaymondPeter You halve the proof to get the percentage, so 100 proof would be 50% alcohol.
@@ultrademigod I am aware of that. My point is 50% ABV is considered the lowest bar of entry for serious whiskey drinkers.
@@RaymondPeter what constitutes a serious drinker cuz those are amazingly rare people to be able to find a 110-120 proof whiskey on a regular basis
I've got fish sauce, soy sauce, plenty of different sugars, and some everclear. Sounds like I can make this for much cheaper.
More than likely would taste better too. Most craft beer tastes like it was made with the pith from grapefruit, rotten soy sauce and a hand-full of wood chips from a house fire with yeast they got by sticking a finger up their butt and stirring the wort with said finger.
@@Ricksteady8 sounds like a good way to make something useful out of materials that would otherwise be considered waste!
@@Ricksteady8 that yeast part made me nearly vomit
@@Ricksteady8 I bet you eat your own boogers.
I think perhaps the most overlooked thing of the fun 'arms race' was the creation of nanny state in response to the tabloid sensationlisation of the strong beer they were making. Although the original was 1.1%, I feel the later edition 0.5% really set the standard for what you could achieve with non alcoholic beer - and it was originally inspired by a response to their strongest!
Actually Strongest Gin is Uncut Navy strength Gin at wopping 76% ABV, Whiskey's all over (Irish, Scotch, Bourbon, Japanese, & Canadian) can be sold as cask strength which ranges from 51-60+ % ABV.
Same distillery has already come out with an Ultra Uncut Gin at 82,5% as another distillery one-upped them with a 77% gin.
Strongest whisky is Bruichladdich X4+3 at 63.5% though they've also sold it unaged at 92%.
Rum is the real home of accessible high proofs though, the 60% or so they mention is really nothing special. Wray and Nephew white overproof at 63%, Plantation OFTD at 69%, numerous 151 rums at 75,5%, plenty above that with Mariënburg and River Antoine Royale Grenadian Rum at 90% topping the list, all pretty easy to get your hands on.
@@Quintinohthree 63.5% is not the strongest whiskey Stagg Jr has multiple releases over 65%
@@owendistefano6715 Notice I've mentioned they've done special unaged releases at 92%.
Laughing at the idea of dunking sushi in it. Now I desperately want to see that happen
BEER GEEKS! PLEASE before you post about this not being the strongest beer in the world, know that the Brewmeister beers were a con and were around 40% ABV. This was tested in a lab by a journalist who questioned their integrity and was correct. Read more here: thebeercast.com/2014/05/brewmeister-lies.html (UPDATE: Brewmeister may now have achieved the strength, but still by adding ethanol which means it is not legally beer.)
Please also know that (as far as we are aware) the other claims to the throne, Start the Future and the Mystery of Beer, were also made by spiking with ethanol, so again not legally beer.
is Schorschbock also adulterated in this way?
@@ashtmw No this beer, and indeed all the beers in this series from both breweries, is made purely through ice distillation.
Ah. Have you guys reviewed Snake Venom yet? That would be interesting
Send a bottle or two to Whiskey Vault, boys!
@@ashtmw No - it is pure ice distillation
If it's freeze distilled, is not a beer. It's a spirit. It requires a totally different licence. If it's been aged in a barrel for years, it's whiskey more or less. I've heard of a microbrewery who's been brewing proper beer to the 20+% mark for decades though. They've been selectively breeding the yeast to get there. Can't remember the name of the brewery or beer though.
Checked with a friend. Apparently it was Parish Brewery with Baz's Super Brew at 23%. Apparently when all this freeze distilled stuff started, he dropped out of the strong beer game saying "when they learn to brew, I'll talk to them".
@@j616s I agree to some extent - really this is ice distilled beer, its own thing and we shouldn't try to put other names to it. But really it is very different to whisky because the distillation happens AFTER barrel ageing. I'll look up Parish Brewing's efforts but these are very different approaches. Brewdog have made lots of exceptionally strong beers without distillation too.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Yeh. I came off a bit brash above. Brewdog have a lot of talent on their staff. It really frustrates me when they do something like this where they are calling a product something it just plane isn't for the sake of marketing. It doesn't do their work justice. I'd genuinely be interested to try this. But I really wish they'd call a spade a spade.
Sam Adams utopia
They've toned it down in recent years, but Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA was labeled 21+% the first time I had it. True brewing with regular yeast addition as the yeast died at the high alcohol content.
"Who mommy?" "You mommy."
I'd love to see you guys "rehydrate" this beer with some carbonated water to see what it was like. I've read that some macro-beer producers freeze distill their beer for transportation, then rehydrate at the destination for packaging.
I doubt it is distillation - more likely extract production so they cook it right down...
@@TheCraftBeerChannel alcohol will boil off before water, that's why they use freeze distillation/concentration.
That's an interesting way to spell liquor
Just like making Apple Jack! Not really a beer but a freeze distillate like Brandy distilled with heat from wine. All the Beer parts are left behind and only the Methanol and ethanol is distilled. Plus whatever else is in there with a low freezing point. Going to be a hangover maker!
Yeah I immediately thought of Applejack…which leaves a nasty hangover. Anyone have a firsthand report on the day after with this beer??
@@brawndothethirstmutilator9848 I made a bunch of it and overall escaped without a hangover.
Try lairds apple brandy if your in the states, make sure it’s 100% apple brandy the good stuff. Never had a hangover from it
It’s distilled so it’s no longer beer. It’s a cold distilled whiskey.
thank you, was thinking the same :D
Nobody would call this a whisky let alone a whiskey. It isn't distilled in anything but a legal sense.
@@Quintinohthree wouldn't call it a whiskey either, since it hasn't barrel-aged but beer is a stretch :P
@@emilskriver49 I don't know, untill it goes through fractional freezing it is certainly still beer and fractional freezing is applied to other beers without putting their legitimacy in question and finally no matter how far fractional freezing is taken none of the things that are distinctive of beer are lost, only water, so how is it not beer? What is the threshold it surpassed where it stopped being beer and why should that be a threshold?
@@emilskriver49 it is barrel aged for four years but it's not whiskey
love how they went from a beer called sink the bismark to a collab. great story
I had Roger & Out in The Frog & Parrot in Sheffield (1986) believed to be the world's strongest beer at the time (21% brewed on the premises) and that was strong enough (sold in third of a pint and a certificate for each third drunk). Smiles Brewery I think then surpassed this but now, this is insane.
Very cool. Had Sink the Bismark in one of the Brew Dog Pubs when I was in Scotland back in 2015. Thought that was strong enough. Would love to try this stuff.
Those corks are actually still somewhat popular in Germany, just without the wax seal. They are pretty neat really, because when you walk around with the beer you can easily close it again.
Great for reusing in homebrew too!
When in early 70s the ,Wire' closed german beer bottles had been mostly replaced by modern type bottles, my father heared in radio a radio man speaking with a brewery owner. The radioman said to brewery owner: But you must drink whole beer of new bottles, you no more can close it. The brewery owner answered: We don' t earn money with clients, needing three days for drinking a beer bottle.
No need to spill the beer and commit alcohol abuse.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Potín is often stronger
Stroh rum comes in 60% and a whopping 80%
Think it would have been interesting to see how I'd would taste if you added some water to it like people do with some whisky's.
Man I have to try this!
@Davidsbeenhere....Cheers🍻!!
You'd have to recarbonate it with a sodastream
Bit late but Brewmeister's Snake Venom.
-80 fridges are used for a lot of medical molecular biology work, preserving extracted DNA and RNA samples.
You got a 30 minute interview cause he speaks so slowly
*1.5 play speed go brrrr*
Just to add to your guys knowledge, cask strength apple brandy and absinthe are two other things I have in my home bar over 55%, both over 60 actually
That's not beer. Once a beverage has been distilled or freeze-distillied, it's called liquor.
Tears and a numb tongue??? As a whiskey drinker, 57.8% abv is just starting to be considered high proof. LOL
Nice vid y'all!! Loved hearing about ice distilling.
Haha well I think whisky makers have had a bit more experience in ensuring a smooth experience....
57.8% is 115 proof. Well into "high proof" territory imho
Well in fact , what is strong beer- answer , Whiskey :-) xx
Hahaha fair statement
Yea anything over 20% is more like a hard liqure just made of hops 😂
I thought it would have been some sort of an Eisbock before I saw the vid. I've been looking for a good one, but they're elusive. Especially in fucking Utah... :/
Yikes I can imagine! Schneiderweisse make one annually that might make it to the states!
Got to put in a request to Templin Family. They seem to love making high point beers, and they might give it a go with some public requests.
Once something has been distilled, is it even a beer anymore? Wouldn't it be a liquor?
There's an argument for reclassifying ice beer as malt liquor. I've had non-distilled beers with higher alcohol percentages than most ice beers though. Does the classification reflect upon the alcohol percentage or the process? And if the process, should ice distillation be included? It depends upon your reason for classifying them.
I believe it refers to the process. The best way to understand thi I have found is to refer to laws. I find lawyers, when they want to prevent people from doing something, they must provide a clear definition of what it is you cannot do.
I understand politicians vote on laws, but they are actually really designed by legal experts. Why do you think the Massive Patriot Act was designed in less than 4 months...
@@heywardhollis1160 Any beer over 5% gets classified as malt liquor. It's purely a classification on strength and in no way mutually exclusive with beer.
Technically beer is labeled beer because of it being made with hops if you think about it so I think it would be still technically beer and it could be technically viewed as liquor to it's more like a liquor beer at that point
@@Quintinohthree yes it is true by law but logically is it still beer yes some of these classifications really don't make much sense because beer is pretty much just anything on the liquor that's made with hops
There are lots of navy strengths gins and rums at 58% Lots of barrel strength whiskies even in the low 60%'s
Think I’ll stick to a DIPA 😆
Yup
13:28 took a sip. No words needed
Absinthe is normally between 55 and 65%. Stroh 80 is the strongest thing I've ever drunk. As the name suggests it's 80% abv. The next was Especiale 151 Rum from the Dom Rep. 75.5% abv.
Yes The Rum 🍹 from The Dominican Republic 🇩🇴 is actually very strong my friend, and I know that because I am half Dominican 🇩🇴 and half Danish 🇩🇰, by the way my friend 😎😊😁😃🙂🤜🏻🤛🏻👍🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🍹🍹🍹🍻🍻🍺🍺🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
And The strongest beer 🍺 in Denmark 🇩🇰, is The Eisbock 38 beer 🍺 - Frederikshavn Bryghus - 38,03% is actually from Frederikshavn Bryghus, Frederikshavn, Denmark 🇩🇰, by the way my friend 😃😃🙂😎😁🤜🏻🤛🏻🤘🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🍺🍺🍺🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
"How much dextrose do you want to add to this beer?"
Yes.
That process of freeze distillation is also known as "jacking". That's where we get the name of spirits like apple jack.
My question is, can something still legally be called "beer" if it's been distilled?
You can't really call it destillation when there is no boiling, but the main quistion is of course how you define beer. And it is mostly defined on the ingridients. Like, most and some best Belgian beers or American craft wouldn't be legaly registered as beer in Russia. Germany used to be very sceptical as well with their beer purity law.
Fun fact: applejack contains some methanol, so be careful with it, kids
Real beer is made in the benelux regions, germany and uk.
The rest is not realy near the same lvl.....
And none of em go above the tens.
So anything above 20 is ludacriss and more a licour
So its Beer Jack. They have been doing it with cider for centuries.
Absinthe gets up there too
I like the look of this...seems nice and thick and dark like a good stout, however, it sounds like it's spiked like an exotic beer.
I wonder, have you ever done an episode about barley wines?
I know, when I go to beer festivals, when they have them on, there's always one that's by Marston's that sells out in a flash. It's about 9% from memory and tastes like the tastiest McVities hobnob (non-chocolate covered version) you could ever imagine :)
This was much better than I expected it to be! In the video on my channel I said it was like someone mixed Whiskey with Madeira Wine... and maybe a touch of hand sanitiser
Pretty much. More soy vibes than that though we thought
@@TheCraftBeerChannel sounds odd. Now, there is a TON of higher proof whisky out there. Look into Independent Bottlers!!
wait wait wait, I thought Brewmeister held the record with "snake venom" at 67.5% no?
That beer was a fraud apparently. Spiked with ethanol rather than being brewed/distilled.
Nope they faked it. It was about 45%
@@jamesiles3038 ah I see thanks!
@@TheCraftBeerChannel wow! thats crazy
@@michaelwaddy2583 no worries I had to look it up myself when I saw the Brewdog release
Nice video, the strongest beer (X-Beer 33) in Czech Republic is 12.6%. Also worth to try.
The strongest beer 🍺 in Denmark 🇩🇰, is The Eisbock 38 beer 🍺 - Frederikshavn Bryghus - 38,03% is actually from Frederikshavn Bryghus, Frederikshavn, Denmark 🇩🇰, by the way dude my friend 😃😃🙂😎😊😁🤜🏻🤛🏻🤘🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🍺🍺🍺🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
Ahhhhhh how about the wonton don drinking the 67% snake venom beer in Shanghai. If you haven’t seen, must watch
It's not beer, and it's probably not 67%. Please read the pinned post.
god i fricking hate Brew Dog, it's all just publicity for these guys, it's not a proper brewery in my view, it's just a smart business!
I think they still make sensational beer and without them UK craft would have been a lot slower off the mark - but I understand the publicity issues. That said, publicity like this is enormous fun and resulted in a magic story for them and Schorschbrau
@@TheCraftBeerChannel yeah like I said their PR team is very good & you're right they've done some great things for the craft beer scene as a whole. I also like the bars, their decor. But Im just not the biggest fan of their beers, I find they don't have much balance to them, there are certainly a lot of local breweries out there making way better beer.
100% there are
They definitely are a lot of publicity. But their beers and joy for beer shown through their TV show on Esquire was one of the things that got me into beer. Im forever grateful for them and definitely have a special place in my beer-heart hahaha.
As a recovering alcoholic.....WHY THE HELL AM I WATCHING THIS? 🤔😅
I have decided today to be a constantly recovering alcoholic. You know why? My best and worst decisions were made while I was drunk. I don't think that I will ever change. I am 48 so take that into account. I don't want kids I don't want to buy another house and fix it up and I really don't want to be that social. When I was a kid my parents asked me what I wanted to be. Trashman, Butler, Hobo! I like to read and cook for people. That is it.
@@TheLottolandus I am also 48, my last job was a trashman ( binman in the UK ) and have been sober for over 9 months now. This is my 3rd and FINAL sobriety. Life is too short to be wasting it to alcohol.
Guess what my current job has been for the past 4 years. A BARMAN. Yes I am surrounded by alcohol but I have a wife and 3 kids ( youngest is 16 ) to think about now. I absolutely love my job and as I have to drive 15 miles to get to it I would never drink at work anyway so I have no temptations or desire to drink now.
Life is a blessing and needs to be treated as such.
Science
About the only thing I have in my stash to compare that to is a bottle of Bookers Uncut, Unfiltered, Cask Strength Bourbon at a whopping 63.85%. It will melt the hair right off of your tongue!
I dunno, man. Booker's is stupid drinkable even at around 66%. Doesn't melt my tongue, just coats it in velvety lusciousness. Used to get it on the regular before people "found it" and the cost about doubled. One of the best bourbons on the market.
@@Vykk_Draygo Compared to the regular stuff, that is about 20pts less. This one is a 2016 bottle. Prefer Woodford Reserve and Double Oak, but this Bookers is good as well, just the initial shock on the first drink.
My strongest to date is the Elijah Craig Barrel Proof B520. It comes in at 127.5 proof and it is just a gorgeous drink.
If it's distilled then it's not a beer, no?
It's not distilled though, it's fractionally frozen. Calling fractional freezing "distilling" is a misnomer. Plenty of well-recognized beers are fractionally frozen. It's just another way to differentiate a beer, and that same process has been taken to the extreme here.
u guys r better than brewdog, even verdant is doing a nice job, so many small breweries in uk who put their hearts and souls to brewing, yet dont have big dollars,...........its all hype in todays age thats worked for brewdog..............cheers ladies.........
Well to be fair to BrewDog, they didn't have the big dollar either when they started! And they still make very tasty beer.
Strongest beer I've tried was maybe 13 percent. Gave me a headache almost instantly.
I remember trying tactical nuclear penguin and thought it was genuinely horrible. Sink the Bismarck was delicious though.
That intro was perfect lol 😭😂
it had me in stitches. not gonna lie.
My first outing with friends in Belgium. Some pub in Mons, in Le Grand-Place. Beer was served in a large bowl sized glass. Probably a liter. After the second one I couldn't find my legs to walk to the bathroom. They told me the beer was 29%. I believed them. My initiation into Belgian beer. Merci!
29%!? Would love to know what that was...
Snake Venom is the worlds strongest at 67.5%
Nope. Please read the pinned post.
Bourbon is routinely at that type of abv
No such thing as ice distillation. It's called fractional freezing or colloquially "jacking". It's a concentrate, not a distillate.
Let me point out that any freeze distilling process leaves a lot of methanol and other bad stuff in there. When you distill using heat and/or vacuum, you can discard the head, the first bit to boil off and condense, and get rid of a lot of the methyl badstuff, because different compounds have different boiling points at a given pressure. one or two shots of that stuff isn't going to hurt you, if you don't make a daily habit of it. Same as Apple Jack. Try a session of apple jack and you will probably experience a hangover of epic fury. I dare say any triple or quadruple or more freeze distilled liquor will be as bad or worse. Take this stuff in moderation, and treat it as the novelty that it is, not as something that you really ought to drink as much of as you want.
I can't imagine it being very good to taste, either, but you could probably duplicate the taste by fermenting a VERY heavy wort to yield something in the mid-teens with a bit of sugar left over, then cut it with everclear, maybe cask age it a bit. The wort will give you body, the everclear a very clean ethanol addition. Should be as safe as whiskey.
Let me counter thst it's not the absolute amount of methanol and other bad stuff in there that matters but the relative amount, which is why the industrial standards for methanol in alcoholic drinks are given in g/hl AA, the AA standing for absolute alcohol. Freeze distilling does not change the relative amounts of any constituents on a g/hl AA basis, except for water. If the beer that went in was good, the beer that comes out is no worse for it. Any resulting difference in hangover will be exclusively the result of taking in less water, not more of anything else.
@@Quintinohthree as I understand it, methanol comes from pectins which are completely absent in grain alcohol. To be prudent just drink a glass of vodka afterwards because ethanol completely dissolves methanol and makes it safe.. :)
Wrong , the relative amount of ethanol to methanol is the same as the original drink so its no worse. Plus methanol isnt produced by grain only fruit so yeah .
I keep my beer in a consumer medical grade refrigerator with a glass door. On its lowest setting it is 40- 42 degrees fahrenheit.
I have a Tokyo aging in my fridge. Last one I could find so saving it.
I have 2 Tokyo aging at home ☺️
A few beers are up to 75% now.
If your using a distilling process why not distill the fermented wort in a pot distiller, collect the alcohol and then add the fermented wort left in the pot distiller to the alcohol collected. Seems like you could beat 57.8% that way. Personally I wouldn't consider anything that's been distilled by any process as being beer.
Because then it probably isn’t beer.
@@_Nibi Then it is more like a unaged Whisky.
You said "gin is never that strength"- to be fair, I have had a 61% gin before
Anyway, I like how you saw it for what it was (i.e. basically just a bit of fun) and gave them credit where its due cos people do love to hate brewdog. (also, what was that little jar that appeared next to the bottle at the end?..)
Yikes! Cant imagine what that would taste like.
Watt Dickie! Another ice distilled beer they made. We discussed it but had to lose it for time reasons
The Craft Beer Channel ah fair enough- and the gin honestly wasn’t bad at all- with a nice tonic and some garnishes, perfectly good ✌🏻
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Edinburgh Cannonball gin, 57.2% absolutely delicious and by far my favourite gin.
For liquor, take your "proof" and divide by 2 to get your percentage.
I wonder how it is watered down like you would a whiskey
It's definitely not watered down. The whole point of fractional freezing is to remove the water, that's all it does.
@@Quintinohthreetests I know that. I'm just wondering how it would taste with a splash of water or "dirty" as I imagine that flavor being way to sharp for my palette
I had their sink the bismark once. It was disgusting. Tasted like rancid soysauce mixed with everclear.
Wow..Brewdog dog just push the boundaries and produce just great beer..luckily for me my nearest bar is 30 miles away i would never get anything done..😊👍🍺 cheers ..!
Haha, they deliver. Along with 2000 small breweries!
A standard pour of scotch (a dram) is about 35ml, so just enough in this bottle for a wee dram and it would cost the same as a dram of 30 year old Talisker.
Yep. Extremely overpriced
Your video isn't doing Schorschbräu any justice. You fail to mention that Schorschbräu (Georg Tscheuschner) is specialized in making strong beer. (>12.8% ABV) Also, it seems like he received the short end of the stick. He produced the beer while Brewdog reaped all the fame for producing the strongest beer.
when the ATF bans home production of moonshine but brewing beer is fully legal
Beer stops being beer when destilled, which ever way it's done.
Why so? Is freezing it to condense it any different to condensing it by boiling it during the brewing process?
@@TheCraftBeerChannel it's been altered post fermentation, there's no way to ferment to that high of ABV. So technically is it still beer by standard definition ? It's a gray area if you ask me. =)
@@TheCraftBeerChannel what @oldschoolman says... beer becomes spirit when distilled.
"Liquor/Spirit: an alcoholic product that’s made from a grain- or fruit/vegetable-derived sugar that’s fermented and distilled, yielding a lower water content and higher ABV"
Barrel proof for most whisky is around 60% abv
Coming out of the still it is not whiskey yet it is actually moonshine technically. Most company’s that make whiskey do sell a barrel proof version of there product but it is usually a little more expensive. The highest proof that can go into a Barrel for whiskey is 125 proof or 62.5%abv
@@joshuacalhoun6531 Depends, if you start with at least 80% corn in the mashbill, you can call the distillate "corn whiskey" in the US, no aging required, up to 80% alcohol allowed. If you wish to call it "straight whiskey" though it has to be proofed down with water to a maximum of 62.5% to sit in a barrel or other wooden container for at least 2 years or at least 4 years if you don't want to print an age statement, and you can call it "bourbon" (but no longer corn whiskey( if it spent any time in new charred oak (in which case you may reduce the corn content to as little as 51% but you are not required to) or still call it "corn whiskey if it spent any time in any other type of wooden container. Also, despite having to enter the barrel at 62.5% or lower, there is no provision that the whiskey must exit the barrel at a given proof and indeed in hot dry climates the barrel proof can increase over time, even in the US. The US also allows blended whiskey to be a mixture of no less than 20% straight whiskey and 80% water, neutral spirit and other whiskey, and even with only 5% straight whiskey included the whole may still be called spirit whiskey, either option making it quite easy to reach high proofs.
Finally, in Europe the rules are a little different and a lot simpler. Distillate may go up to 94.8% and go into the barrel at the proof it came off the still, though it must always go into a barrel and stay in a barrel at least 3 years. Imported whiskies must adhere to the same rules.
Of course, all of these are outliers and whiskies of all kinds do tend not to go far above 65%
This isn't even close to being the worlds strongest beer.
Brewmeister Snake Venom 67.5%
Brewmeister Armageddon 65%
Koelschip Start the future 60%
Just a few to mention which are stronger.
HEY! You guys did the supermarket brewing with Alex French Guy Cooking, right?
That's us! What an adventure that was.
guys, the world's strongest beer is Snake Venom at 67.5% ABV. it's a lager brewed by Brewmeister.
so... do your research before.
I think it's you who needs to do the research. Please read the pinned post.
They open the beer at 11:40
This is just stupid. It's not even beer - just an exercise in beer-flavored stupidity. Wanna get the strongest beer in the world? Just grab a Bud Light and a pint of stupidity and mix them half and half. BAM! Strongest beer in the world, and will taste equally terrible as this swill.
It's silliness is exactly why it was fun to make a video.
"We don't review beer on this channel"
Lol fair point
But it's not, so...
Newcastle Amber long gone was a good drop. There now is Alnwick Amber a Northumbrian beer the Alnwick Brewmaster used to work for Scottish and Newcastle. Ok not strong but nice.
I would never buy that looks really stupid tiny bottle it's even smaller than its lid that's stupid
Bear in Russia drinks beer . BEER drinks you in russia 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Never had the chance to try Sink The Bismarck!, but I actually quite enjoyed Tactical Nuclear Penguin.
Sink the Bismark was horrible! Way too bitter, almost undrinkable. Must have been 1000 IBU or something in the region!
@@aramage1975 I found Hop Shot similarly hard to drink. If you get the chance to try TNP, give it a go.
that intro definitely made me giggle 😂
Brewdog, The result of internet memers creating a beer company.
Terrible flavours but funny names and wacky strengths.
where can i get this is South africa?
use the internet for a delivery mate
How about snake venom? Comes down to the same thing, but has an abv of 67.5%
Please read the pinned post!
Nope. We beat you years ago with Snake Venom: ua-cam.com/video/52GUOiDjlWU/v-deo.html and it's still the beer ABV champ.
Unfortunately the beer you tried back then was actually around 40% ABV and made purely by spiking with ethanol. See the story here: thebeercast.com/2014/05/brewmeister-lies.html
Hm by fermentation methods a beer can only go up to 23% so brewdog and brewmeister both skirt the rules ?
Nope. Just pushing traditional methods to their limits.
Whiskey over here in America can be had at around that strength or stronger if you go to the right stores.
Total wine tends to have a bunch of barrel proof bourbons, as well as other stores in my area.
Had the Tactical Nuclear Penguin years ago... GOD AWFUL.
Me too. It wasnt so much beer, as it was a malty liqour.
@@AequitasVision I thought that one was the best of the series. Found it like really strong port - sweet berry, strong oxidation character and a lovely warming booze. Nothing on actual port, but still drinkable. This was... an experience, but not one I would repeat in a hurry.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel I haven't had the opportunity to try the others, but hey, I agree fully that it was an experience :)
@@TheCraftBeerChannel It tasted like Soy Sauce in a dirty ash tray to me. Cool to try it though.
I think the strongest beer my dad has brewed is about 5.5 and 6% naturally. He has never tried freeze distilling though, not worth his time for the most part.
Oh ok so the same process as making applejack from cider
Is this stuff discontinued? Trying to find a link to buy this.
To paraphrase Monty Python...
It turned me into a Newt.
Brewdog dont make beer, they make beer flavoured chemical drinks.
Also 151 rum is also a quite popular thing in cocktails, reaching around 75%, there is also absinthe that can go upwards of 80
@Poon Slaayer yeah, that shit is actually beyond dangerous LMFAO I never actually drink that shit, just use it for infusions to then water it down/mix it heavily
Having toture with 80 Stroh, no matter how you drunk you will suffer on every sip.
Ha ha love how the video had to pretty much stop fter a couple sips, would have been great to see it go about 5 mins longer..
Hey, there's Navy Strength Gin which are minimum 57%
Great vid guys!
Yikes. The navy must have had some hangovers
@@TheCraftBeerChannel if you cant fight em hung over, dont fight em at all
It's not even beer any more, just a chemistry experiment to see how high an ABV you can get.
There’s Tatratea at up-to 72%.
A lot of rums go up to 70-80%.
There’s also absinth at up-to 90%.
So yeah, there are a lot of higher alc. drinks, but you only drink 2-3 of these and you’re done 😬