Utopias topped by Tactical Nuclear Penguin

[CBiebel]

Boy, does that subject line sound strange if you don't know what it means...

What it means is that Utopias, at currently 27% ABV, is no longer the highest ABV beer (or purely fermented beverage) anymore.

Brewdog of Fraserburgh, Scottland now holds the crown with their Tactical Nuclear Penguin that clocks in at a whopping 32% ABV!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/north_east/8380412.stm

 

[Arcanum]

I believe Tactical Nuclear Penguin is not just fermented either. I think they're doing what amounts to freeze concentration to get the ABV up so high.

 

[akueck]

Yeah I don't count the Penguin as higher than Utopias since they concentrated it. Still insanity though, and they put it in a bottle with a crown cap too.

 

[socpsy]

Those guys at BrewDog do some interesting things with beer. I'm not sure this one is something I'd be interested in. Some of their others are pretty good.

 

[Brimminghorn]

I don't believe these guys are fermenting beers to 32% abv there's no way...I would be happy to run a sample of this through our Alcolyzer at work. They are either doing some sort of freeze distillation or this beer is being aged in barrel that have some whiskey left over in them. I just know how hard it is for us at DFH to get beers above 20% using a high gravity yeast strains, brewing enzymes ,and a boat load of ingredients.

Cheers,
Jon

 

[wayneb]

I don't believe these guys are fermenting beers to 32% abv there's no way...I would be happy to run a sample of this through our Alcolyzer at work. They are either doing some sort of freeze distillation or this beer is being aged in barrel that have some whiskey left over in them. I just know how hard it is for us at DFH to get beers above 20% using a high gravity yeast strains, brewing enzymes ,and a boat load of ingredients.

Cheers,
Jon

They are doing freeze concentration - in fact they are touting it as a unique processing step in their web video about the stuff.

 

[Brimminghorn]

Thanks for the info Wayne...I knew they could have got it that high with just fermentation.

Cheers,
Jon

 

[Fishbone]

Isn't Utopias fermentation-only? I seem to remember an interview with Sam Koch stating that it was fermentation only. Am I brain-farting on that? If it is true, at 27%, Utopias' abv is still really high...is it aged in whiskey barrels? I'm just wondering how Utopias gets that high. Anyone know?

 

[AToE]

Isn't Utopias fermentation-only? I seem to remember an interview with Sam Koch stating that it was fermentation only. Am I brain-farting on that? If it is true, at 27%, Utopias' abv is still really high...is it aged in whiskey barrels? I'm just wondering how Utopias gets that high. Anyone know?

Utopia is fermentation only, I think they bred their own strain of yeast to do it, which took them 10 years or something around that.

 

[akueck]

Yeah and the ABV of Utopias has been creeping up over the past couple years too, so they are still working on it. Insanity! I love it. ;D

 

[AToE]

I want their yeast!

 

[slowbie]

I read an article about this a bit ago. I think it's almost comical how much criticism this seems to have drawn because of it's high alcohol content. At £30(=US$48.67)/bottle you'd have to be pretty drunk already to think that you're getting the most alcohol for your dollar.

 

[akueck]

It's more than almost comical, it's downright wrong-headed. You can buy 100+ proof distillates for less money per volume. And Utopias is even more expensive. The people who buy these are not doing it to get sloshed. Along the same vein are the laws that say you can't buy a single 12-oz bottle (or even a six-pack in some places), but you can buy single 40-oz bottles. The rationale is always "to prevent public drunkenness" and such, but I can't figure out how forcing people into buying more alcohol in a single package is going to reduce drunkenness. This one especially stings me since Oakland just said I can't get a single bottle from the corner store, but I can if I go to Whole Foods. WTF?!?

/rant

 

[slowbie]

It's more than almost comical, it's downright wrong-headed.
...
This one especially stings me since Oakland just said I can't get a single bottle from the corner store, but I can if I go to Whole Foods. WTF?!?

You're right, I should revise my statement.
It's almost comical as long as it's only talk direct towards other people and no actual action comes of it.

I've never heard of laws like the ones you're talking about, but it sounds ridiculous. I wish people would start taking responsibility for their own health so that the government didn't feel pressure to do so for them.

The area I live in is actually going in the opposite direction. In my lifetime the county that I now live in stopped being dry and just last year they lifted the blue laws on alcohol sales.

 

[Fishbone]

akueck, is that a single bottle? Or is that the 6-pack of assorted single beers? I can't buy a single 12-ounce bottle of beer either, but I can buy 6 individual bottles combined into a 6-pack of extremely rare, sought-after, award-winning, delicious fermented treats such as Miller Genuine Draft, Budweiser American Ale, Corona Light, Dos Equis, and Red Stripe to name an exalted few. Seriously, about as exotic as the selection gets is Old Dominion Ale (a local Virginia brewery which is pretty damn good by the way) or Leinenkugel's. Do you guys have this BS at your local grocery/liquor store?

 

[slowbie]

akueck, is that a single bottle? Or is that the 6-pack of assorted single beers? I can't buy a single 12-ounce bottle of beer either, but I can buy 6 individual bottles combined into a 6-pack of extremely rare, sought-after, award-winning, delicious fermented treats such as Miller Genuine Draft, Budweiser American Ale, Corona Light, Dos Equis, and Red Stripe to name an exalted few. Seriously, about as exotic as the selection gets is Old Dominion Ale (a local Virginia brewery which is pretty damn good by the way) or Leinenkugel's. Do you guys have this BS at your local grocery/liquor store?

Yikes. You have my sympathy. Around here there are quite a few good microbrews that are pretty easy to find in restaurants and the grocery store. On top of that, the store I go to for homebrew supplies also carries 565 different beers, all sold by the bottle.

 

[akueck]

You might be able to get a mixed 6-pack, I haven't tried that yet (the law took effect Nov 1). You used to be able to buy a single 12 oz bottle of anything, anywhere. When Sierra Nevada Torpedo and Kellerweiss came out, I got one bottle of each from the corner store. Now I need to buy 6 12-oz bottles at a time, but any single container of at least 24 oz can be purchased by itself (this includes those giant cans, 40s, and 750ml bottles). Those tiny bottles of vodka, rum, tequilla, etc they put next to the registers are not affected (huh?). But, if I go half a mile down to the Whole Foods, I can pick up a single 12 oz bottle of whatever they have. Not only does the limitation piss me off, but it also doubly (more like exponentially) pisses me off that it is not applied evenly across all retail locations or forms of alcohol. I can see the city council members coming up with this one:
"Hey, let's cut down on the street people (aka homeless, vagrants, etc) drinking to improve our fair city."
"Great idea! Let's outlaw sales of single bottles of beer. They don't have enough cash for a six-pack."
"But I like buying singles sometimes at the supermarket."
"Oh, yeah. We'll just apply it to the independent local shops then."
"What about those little bottles of liquor? Shouldn't we get rid of those too?"
"No way, we make a killing in taxes on those!"

 

[AToE]

They passed a similar law in British Columbia a couple years ago when I was living there, it really makes no sense at all, and is honestly just plain disrespectful to homeless and low income people.

If they want to get rid of drunk homeless people they should get them into treatment and get them back on their feet. Common sense says getting rid of single beer sales is guaranteed to have no effect, because no one can get drunk off just one anyways, and buying singles of the big cheap beers (which is still allowed...) is cheaper than buying 3-4 single regular sized beers. It accomplishes nothing but angering the average person and essentially telling homeless people they're worth even less than they thought they were.

Sorry for that rant, this law really made me angry when I was in Vancouver.


Idiocy at it's best is what that law is. Thankfully, there's no laws like that in Alberta, so if I feel like a single Innis and Gunn I can have it!

 

[wildoates]

You might be able to get a mixed 6-pack, I haven't tried that yet (the law took effect Nov 1). You used to be able to buy a single 12 oz bottle of anything, anywhere. When Sierra Nevada Torpedo and Kellerweiss came out, I got one bottle of each from the corner store. Now I need to buy 6 12-oz bottles at a time, but any single container of at least 24 oz can be purchased by itself (this includes those giant cans, 40s, and 750ml bottles). Those tiny bottles of vodka, rum, tequilla, etc they put next to the registers are not affected (huh?). But, if I go half a mile down to the Whole Foods, I can pick up a single 12 oz bottle of whatever they have. Not only does the limitation piss me off, but it also doubly (more like exponentially) pisses me off that it is not applied evenly across all retail locations or forms of alcohol. I can see the city council members coming up with this one:
"Hey, let's cut down on the street people (aka homeless, vagrants, etc) drinking to improve our fair city."
"Great idea! Let's outlaw sales of single bottles of beer. They don't have enough cash for a six-pack."
"But I like buying singles sometimes at the supermarket."
"Oh, yeah. We'll just apply it to the independent local shops then."
"What about those little bottles of liquor? Shouldn't we get rid of those too?"
"No way, we make a killing in taxes on those!"

Who says they can't afford a six-pack? When I was spending time about the bay area they took in enough to buy a lot more than that--one guy that hung around by the North Gate used to buy Heinekin, and was a huge joke with the shopkeepers there. He stopped even asking me for spare change.

Alcohol is always going to be at the frontrunner of regulation, for obvious reasons. Alas!

 

[Medsen Fey]

"What about those little bottles of liquor? Shouldn't we get rid of those too?"
"No way, we make a killing in taxes on those!"

[Rant]
TAXES! YOU WANT TAXES....?
You ain't seen nothing yet! Just wait to see what happens to price of beer, wine, mead and liquor once the EPA starts carbon regulation. The EPA has unilaterally determined that CO2 represents a risk to health (due to global warming) under the clean air act and thus the EPA has the right to regulate its production. Do you know how much CO2 yeast generate? That's essentially what they spend their whole lives doing and now the government is going to regulate that. Just wait and see - but unfortunately you just might have to hold your breath while you wait.

And the bureaucrats with this logic and critical thinking are the people we want to determine how we get our health care. HEELLLLLLP! [/rant]