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.
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'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 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)
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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 😃😃🙂😎😁🤜🏻🤛🏻🤘🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🍺🍺🍺🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
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
@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
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.
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
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.
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 😃😃🙂😎😊😁🤜🏻🤛🏻🤘🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🍺🍺🍺🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
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 ..!
@@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?
On a leaving party in Liverpool, I got both a "Tactical Nuclear Penguin" and "The Bottle that sank the Bismark". A rather rough night... I remember the taste of the first one...
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
Fractional freezing and distillation are two entirely different processes, so the term "freeze distillation" is confusing. With fractional freezing of beer you are creating water ice crystals and removing them, leaving the dissolved solids and alcohol behind. But in distillation you are evaporating the alcohol and leaving the solids and water behind. Mostly... with the former, some water is left behind, and you can repeat the process to remove more water, and with the latter some water comes with the alcohol, and you can repeat the process. Eisbock is considered a Reinheitsgebot beer, so it is still beer.
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.
I had a bottle of Koskenkorva Finnish vodka at 60%, duty free from Helsinkii airport a few years ago, which remained drinkable. And also an excellent cleaning product. And in terms of Eisbier, Adventinus Eisbier by Schneider Weisse is probably the best beer I have ever had.
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 :)
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 😬
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.
Just a heads up! I underStand why you would think whiskey doesn’t get above %40 ABV, as that is the range where many bottles can be found. However, finding a whiskey that is over %60 ABV is extremely common. It know as “cask strength” or “barrel proof.”
American whiskies can get above 60%. Also freeze distilling was a method used in the Colonial US (in particular New Jersey) for Apple Jack. Laird's is the only brand around from that time but I don't think they make it that way anymore
Good tip for spirits tasting - breathe out after swallowing, which diminishes the ethanol and allows you to taste / smell off the palate he more subtle characters. Of course that said, once the soy sauce kicks in it’s hard to enjoy anything else!
First thing I learned when I was 14 so I wouldn't die from an 80 proof whiskey shot. My friends dad was a good teacher. (Hold breathe, take shot, breathe out!)
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 had the original Schorschboch 57 before, exact same bottle 2 years ago.. It is like dark strip molasses with soy sauce drips in.. You cannot drink a sip, it sticks in your throat.. Cost me 50€ for this 40ml bottle.. Once in a lifetime experince..
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.
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.
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.........
@@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%
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.
Anyone can easily do this at home, the only reason brewers stop at 60% is cost effectiveness, also because there is no distillation, toxins build up in the solution which produce major hangovers
To reach this percentage you need to freeze below -35 degrees (fahrenheit or celsius, doesn't matter). Your home freezer won't do that. No toxins build up, because nothing is produced. Stuff gets concentrated, but it's the exact same stuff that had always been there.
As someone who has done the ice freezing thing myself on an apple cider, I'm gonna say that probably costs about 500 dollars and tastes like poison I don't like beer in the first place and I can't imagine intensifying those flavors by that much.
"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.
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!
"I only had one pint, officer."
"What seems to be the officer, problem?"
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%.
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'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.
love how they went from a beer called sink the bismark to a collab. great story
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
13:28 took a sip. No words needed
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
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
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.
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 an interesting way to spell liquor
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...
So its Beer Jack. They have been doing it with cider for centuries.
Barrel Proof Whiskey, Navy Strength Gin, Navy Strength Rum, Absinthe are all around 55% or more and most liquors are distilled above that.
Sure... but do they account for most liquors? I shouldn't have said gin never does to be fair though!
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.
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 😃😃🙂😎😁🤜🏻🤛🏻🤘🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🍺🍺🍺🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
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!!
That intro was perfect lol 😭😂
it had me in stitches. not gonna lie.
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.
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
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.
-80 fridges are used for a lot of medical molecular biology work, preserving extracted DNA and RNA samples.
I keep my beer in a consumer medical grade refrigerator with a glass door. On its lowest setting it is 40- 42 degrees fahrenheit.
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
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
Laughing at the idea of dunking sushi in it. Now I desperately want to see that happen
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 😃😃🙂😎😊😁🤜🏻🤛🏻🤘🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🍺🍺🍺🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
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!
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
"Who mommy?" "You mommy."
For liquor, take your "proof" and divide by 2 to get your percentage.
On a leaving party in Liverpool, I got both a "Tactical Nuclear Penguin" and "The Bottle that sank the Bismark". A rather rough night... I remember the taste of the first one...
Brewdog, The result of internet memers creating a beer company.
Terrible flavours but funny names and wacky strengths.
No such thing as ice distillation. It's called fractional freezing or colloquially "jacking". It's a concentrate, not a distillate.
That's not beer. Once a beverage has been distilled or freeze-distillied, it's called liquor.
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 😂
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
Fractional freezing and distillation are two entirely different processes, so the term "freeze distillation" is confusing. With fractional freezing of beer you are creating water ice crystals and removing them, leaving the dissolved solids and alcohol behind. But in distillation you are evaporating the alcohol and leaving the solids and water behind. Mostly... with the former, some water is left behind, and you can repeat the process to remove more water, and with the latter some water comes with the alcohol, and you can repeat the process. Eisbock is considered a Reinheitsgebot beer, so it is still beer.
What a cool story, less posturing more fermenting!
Holy hell that’s a beer! Jealous you got to try it. I don’t “wan’t” to try it, but I do. lol
Bravo to those who contributed to making it!
At this point it's not a beer. It's a distilled spirit. o_O
Exactly right!
Nice to hear someone pronounce "bräu" correctly, especially an Englishman.
Haha - Jonny speaks a bit of German so knows an umlaut when he sees it.
My fav is weissbier !!
Wicked!!!! We gotta get you guys and the worlds strongest beer on our show for season 2!!! Cheers!!
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
Should have hit it with a splash or two of filtered water like you would with cask strength whiskey, to really let it open up.
Very interesting thought!
You boys ever try an old fashioned applejack? You're in that territory.
Never heard of it before but seen lots of references in the comments...not sure whether we should track some down.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Same thing but with cider.
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.
I had a bottle of Koskenkorva Finnish vodka at 60%, duty free from Helsinkii airport a few years ago, which remained drinkable. And also an excellent cleaning product.
And in terms of Eisbier, Adventinus Eisbier by Schneider Weisse is probably the best beer I have ever had.
Aventinus Eisbock, I haven't seen that stocked in a minute, I miss it...
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
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 :)
when the ATF bans home production of moonshine but brewing beer is fully legal
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 😬
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
Think I’ll stick to a DIPA 😆
Yup
Oh wow that's cool
Just a heads up! I underStand why you would think whiskey doesn’t get above %40 ABV, as that is the range where many bottles can be found. However, finding a whiskey that is over %60 ABV is extremely common. It know as “cask strength” or “barrel proof.”
Of course. We explained ourselves poorly.
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
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.
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.
American whiskies can get above 60%. Also freeze distilling was a method used in the Colonial US (in particular New Jersey) for Apple Jack. Laird's is the only brand around from that time but I don't think they make it that way anymore
Man I have to try this!
@Davidsbeenhere....Cheers🍻!!
You'd have to recarbonate it with a sodastream
Bit late but Brewmeister's Snake Venom.
Good tip for spirits tasting - breathe out after swallowing, which diminishes the ethanol and allows you to taste / smell off the palate he more subtle characters. Of course that said, once the soy sauce kicks in it’s hard to enjoy anything else!
First thing I learned when I was 14 so I wouldn't die from an 80 proof whiskey shot. My friends dad was a good teacher. (Hold breathe, take shot, breathe out!)
To paraphrase Monty Python...
It turned me into a Newt.
I believe ice distilled can be called jacking as well
There are lots of navy strengths gins and rums at 58% Lots of barrel strength whiskies even in the low 60%'s
Stroh rum comes in 60% and a whopping 80%
Love brew dog
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 had the original Schorschboch 57 before, exact same bottle 2 years ago.. It is like dark strip molasses with soy sauce drips in.. You cannot drink a sip, it sticks in your throat.. Cost me 50€ for this 40ml bottle.. Once in a lifetime experince..
Indeed! A great experience if not a great beer
Old J tiki fire. 75.5% overproof rum. Much higher than what you stated overproof rums can be.
I mean our point wasn't really that NO spirits are that strength, more that just like beer they very rarely are.
Also, that's a rather typical proof for overproof rum and you can find loads of 151 rums.
At that strength, it cannot officially be called a beer but a malt liquor.
Ah, the US, where 5% is too strong to be called beer.
Bourbon is routinely at that type of abv
I had some ICE when l was in Germany in 1995. It was like malassis
Liqueur style Beer!
I have plenty of whiskies with a higher abv. Just about all cask strength ones are higher.
Sure but they account for a tiny fraction of whisky sold, which was our (poorly made) point.
"How much dextrose do you want to add to this beer?"
Yes.
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.
I think I can drink this until the end of my life! XD
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
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.
12:51 so you’re telling me that I have to wait up to 13mins to see you two guys actually drink the beer?!
Favorite intro.
A few beers are up to 75% now.
Australia has exceptional craft beer.
11:50 they open the bottle 😂😂😂
Really stretching out the tension
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%
So if their math is right and my math is right then buying a fifth of this stuff for shots at your party would be 600 dollars lol
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.
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..
Anyone can easily do this at home, the only reason brewers stop at 60% is cost effectiveness, also because there is no distillation, toxins build up in the solution which produce major hangovers
To reach this percentage you need to freeze below -35 degrees (fahrenheit or celsius, doesn't matter). Your home freezer won't do that.
No toxins build up, because nothing is produced. Stuff gets concentrated, but it's the exact same stuff that had always been there.
Tastes like heartburn
definite aftertaste of that for sure.
They open the beer at 11:40
As someone who has done the ice freezing thing myself on an apple cider, I'm gonna say that probably costs about 500 dollars and tastes like poison
I don't like beer in the first place and I can't imagine intensifying those flavors by that much.
Cool video and idea nonetheless. I just don't like beer lol