BrewDog Breaks Rules, Brewses Tradition
Posted By The Brewologist on August 5, 2010
Tactical Nuclear Penguin is the funny, and fitting name given to a BrewDog offering which sports an amazingly high alcohol level of 32%. That’s one of the strongest commercial beers made. But it’s not alone.
Schorschbräu, a German brewery which claims to be “Home of the Strongest Beers on Earth” is notorious for producing such brain numbing potions as Schorschbock 31, Schorschbock 40, released after “Tactical Nuclear Penguin,” and Schorschbock 43, which they released in response to BrewDog’s “Sink the Bismarck,” a buzz bomb weighing 41%. It appears that BrewDog has taken their title again.
On July 22, 2010, BrewDog, Scotland’s largest independent brewery, announced “The End of History,” a 12 bottle run which sold out within days. The biggest beer ever made settled the score at 55% alcohol. Will Schorschbräu respond with an offering even more lethal?
If they do, it will be interesting to see if they go to such nutty lengths to ensure a solid footing on the strange brew stage as BrewDog has. The End of History not only takes the title of the highest ABV for a commercial beer, it takes the cake for creativity, and takes taxidermy to new heights. Each bottle of The End of History, which sell for $770, is presented in a stuffed stoat or grey squirrel. (No animals were harmed during the packaging process. They used roadkill.)
In their blog, BrewDog states that “The bottles are at once beautiful and disturbing — they disrupt conventions and break taboos, just like the beer they hold within them.”
BrewDog also states that The End of History is “the last high abv beer we are going to brew.”
So how did they get the beer so strong anyhow? They froze it.
Controversial among craft beer purists, the process is a form of distillation, traditionally referred to as ice distillation, or freeze distillation, a technique that began in fourteenth century Germany with the Eisbock style. The idea that freezing beer to concentrate the alcohol can be called distillation at all is also a point of controversy.
Regardless of that, the process allows a beer to increase in alcohol strength without sacrificing depth of flavor. The beer starts life just like any other, in the mash tun and brew kettles, then it is aged. Finally, the beer is slowly frozen to remove some of the water, leaving behind a concentrated form of the brew, with higher alcohol and more robust flavors.
Ice distillation is illegal in the United States, therefore the strongest beers produced in the U.S. are variations of barley-wines, Belgian strong ales, imperial stouts, and IPAs. Some examples are Sam Adams Utopias (25-27%), Dogfish Head’s Worldwide Stout (23.04%) and 120 Minute IPA (20%). These brewers use traditional fermenting techniques and proprietary yeast strains. Since yeast produces the alcohol, the production of beers like these relies solely on yeasts tolerance to higher alcohol levels.
Whether you agree or disagree that beers produced through ice distillation should be considered beers at all, there is no denying that BrewDog has made a big wave in the vast sea of beer marketing. BrewDog has been criticized by industry watchdogs, as well as others regarding their higher ABV beers. Now they can add animals rights advocates to that list.
Talk about pushing the envelope.
Anyhoo, we’ll be stopping back to try Two Goats own craft brews next year, that’s the next time we’ll be in the area. They’ll get their game on. There is no doubt they are a nice destination for lovers of brews and views. The views from the deck of Two Goats brewpub are wonderful, as you can see in the pics here. Stupid me never got a pic of the actual building though. Next time.
Cryptobrewology was recently followed on Twitter by Art of Brewing, a company located in British Columbia (Not the Art of Brewing online Superstore in the UK). They serve Nanaimo, Ladysmith, Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, and specialize in “on-site beer and wine making” which is a sort of novelty approach to making your own beer or wine. I won’t bark at that because the practice does introduce the general public to home beer and wine making, and can serve to spread appreciation of these hobbies.
Cherish, Raspberry. This is an authentic Belgian lambic “brewed with real raspberries” as the label states, but in order to get such a bold, wonderful raspberry nose they must have added some after the brewing, and maybe a little after fermentation too. 
Labatt’s Blue. Now here’s an okay little pilsner I would drink again. I’m a fan of Molson Canadian, when I feel like having a crisp, light beer during the summer, but now I’ll have to add Labatt’s to my light drinking fare. Some might disagree, but I think this is a nice beer. But drink it chilled, and don’t let it sit around like you might with an ale!