For the past couple of years, the battle for the world’s strongest beers has been between the Scottish BrewDog and the German brewery Schorschbräu, with the last volley mere days ago with BrewDog’s controversial 55% The End of History. Seemingly out of nowhere a new contender for the title emerged. The Dutch brewer Brouwerij Het ‘t Koelship announced today they’re releasing a new beer, Start the Future, no doubt a response to BrewDog’s name for their 55% beer. Start the Future is 60% a.b.v.
Here’s ‘t Koelship’s description, as auto-translated by Google:
It presents Reefer Biggest beer in the world now the Scots a 55% beer on the market was the question: what do we do now? He is START THE FUTURE 60% alc. In response to the Scottish reaction; Obilix 45% was a success, but this is even better!
START THE FUTURE is like a beer OBILX product, a heavy alcoholic drink with the ingredients Water, malt, hops and yeast. The beer is then processed into a product, a beer-based beer product. START THE FUTURE is like OBILIX is a product made of 100% beer beer. How? Ask the brewer. You drink our START THE FUTURE and Obilix from a small glass and not from a beer glass.
According to Reuters:
Nijboer’s Almere-based brewery, ‘t Koelschip (The Refrigerated Ship), sells the new beer, which is 120 proof and dubbed “Start the Future,” in a one-third litre bottle for 35 euros ($45) each.
Nijboer told ANP he developed the new brew to keep up with Scottish outfits that were also pushing the boundaries of beer’s alcohol content. His previous record-holder, a beer called Oblix that was 90 proof (45 per cent alcohol by volume), was eclipsed by a Scottish beer that reached 55 per cent.
“It has become a little competition,” Nijboer said. “You should see it as a joke.”
It’s probably not a coincidence that the brewery also operates a distillery, too.
Below is a bad photo of the bottle, from ‘t Koelship’s website.
UPDATE: It looks like the Start the Future may have whisky added to it, making it doubtful most people will consider it a beer. (Thanks to Ken W. for the info.) The controversy is unfolding on Rate Beer — and probably elsewhere — where many people are questioning that this is truly a beer.
Even Schorsch from Schorschbräu weighed in:
What Mr. Nijboer is doing is not only trying to fool all others who do a fair contest (at the moment I got 43% Vol) and I will try more, but not for the price of leaving the way of Reinheitsgebot (German purity law). It’s a regional special German law and I do not expect that beer must be produced in that way worldwide…but what Koelschip does is pure customer deception. This is also illegal by national Dutch law.
I thought this whole fad was crazy when beer hit 27%. 60%? Next thing you know we’re going to have beer rubbing alcohol.
Sure, they win the strongest beer contest for the moment, but they’re clearly losing the battle for creativity and buzz that seems to be most of BrewDog’s motivation. There’s no roadkill, no media blitz, no angry craft beer purists on this, just a semi-clever nod to BrewDog in the name.
The following quote by the brewer himself sums it all up pretty well:
“You should see it as a joke.”
I couldn’t have said it better.
It certainly is an interesting joke, though, and a rather fun one to track, especially with the ruckus these things raise with the beer crowd.
As for beer rubbing alcohol, maybe that ship has sailed already…some of these novelty hi-octane beers already taste close to that (though perhaps not as smooth as rubbing alcohol).
I think the next step is going to be more like beer paint thinner.
None of this ‘competition’ is particularly inspiring or creative, actually. BrewDog tend to run the Stone playbook when they want attention, so controversial ABV beer launched with mock po-mo babble gets them all over the media here for free. Not bad for 11 bottles of beer, but in the wider scheme of things, irrelevant.
I haven’t heard of ‘t Koelschip, but assume they take their name from the shallow large-area open fermentation vessel which can be found at Cantillon and, I think, at Anchor. I guess we’ll be hearing about them now…
Brewdog is a joke along with any other brewery that tries to create a high ABV beer by freeze distilling. Woopty Doo!. Whether or not you have had it, or like it Sam Adams Utopias and similar beers are where they talent lies, true fermented beer.
I’m put off by what BrewDog’s been up to with these silly “stunt beers.” They are brewed for attention, not quality or the pleasure of beer drinkers. Any doubts I had about this were erased when I saw them packaging End of History in roadkill.
Many brewers could make a 55% ABV beer, but few would want to put their name on the result.
IMHO, BrewDog’s “World’s Strongest Beer” was never about the beer. Rather, it was a brilliant, well thought out marketing campaign that elevated this little known brewery in the middle of nowhere Scotland to world recognition. The video for Tactical Nuclear Penguin and Sink the Bismark were epic! Putting beer in dead animals was insane! (Even bad press is good press, eh?)
It was the perfect follow-up to their gold medal for Hardcore IPA at the World Beer Cup. http://www.brewdog.com/blog-article.php?id=286 Hardcore IPA is an Imperial IPA and for a little known Scottish brewery to win this category at this comp is huge. These guys seem to know how to brew.
Anyone that chases this world’s strongest beer “title” after these guys have already capitalized on it and put it to bed are a bit late to the game. 😉
“The beer [The End of History] is the last high abv beer we are going to brew, the end point of our research into how far the can push the boundaries of extreme brewing, the end of beer.” – http://www.brewdog.com/blog-article.php?id=341
It will be interesting to see if the new owners of Anchor bring Brew Dog to the US in time to capitalize on the current exposure. Momentum is everything and they’re missing a golden opportunity if they don’t get into the U.S. market soon.
“There’s also a possibility that Martin Dickie, BrewDog’s brewmaster, may brew some of his beers at the Anchor Brewhouse” – http://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/my-lunch-with-keith-greggor-new-anchor-owner/
For an interesting look inside Brew Dog, check this blog entry out:
http://www.byo.com/blogs/life-after-uc-davis-weeks-1-2.html
If you haven’t seen this blog, it’s also an good look at the UC Davis Master Brewer’s program.