Germans, Scots battle for title of world's strongest beer

Mar 4, 2010, 18:55 GMT

London/Berlin - Two small breweries - one in Scotland, the other in Germany's Bavaria - are engaged in battle, each laying claim to producing the world's strongest beer.

It started out as a silly contest between BrewDog in Scotland and the Schorschbraeu brewery in Germany. Since then, it has escalated into a serious contest that has the beer world enraptured.

Both have spent months trying to see how much alcohol they can cram into a bottle of beer, making them the target of regulators concerned that they are promoting irresponsible drinking with the results of their battle.

The latest offering from the Scots - Sink the Bismarck - is a clear shot across the bows of the Germans, hearkening to the 1960 film of the same name in which British ships chase the German battleship Bismarck across the Atlantic in 1941.

The Bismarck was eventually sunk. The Scottish beer has 41 per cent alcohol, one percentage point more than the German brewery's Schorschbock.

With alcohol levels like that, these beers can hold their own, in terms of alcohol, with drinks like whiskey and vodka.

The Scots want to bring beer to a 'new level,' according to James Watt, managing director of Brewdog. He says beer's 'awful reputation' in Britain is a thing of the past.

But, while Watt wants to highlight the taste and exclusivity of his product, Scottish health officials characterize his brewing art as irresponsible.

Georg Tscheuschner, the brewmaster behind Schorschbock, says he is sceptical of Brewdog's latest record. He suspects that the Scots stored their beer in old whiskey barrels, which let the beer soak up some of the whiskey's alcohol content. He's busily checking out his theory.

'I want there to be a fair competition,' says Tscheuschner, who is also head of the brewery in northern Bavaria. But he also plans to stay competitive and soon release a beer with 45 per cent alcohol by volume.

Such an alcohol content can be achieved by putting the beer through his 'Icebock' process, whereby the beer is frozen. The ice crystals are then separated out, with the remaining liquid containing a significantly higher concentration of alcohol and sugar.

However, there are no plans to mass produce either high-alcohol beverage.

A 0.33-litre bottle of Sink the Bismarck sells for 40 pounds (62 dollars). The Schorschbraeu brewery produces limited annual runs of 1,000 bottles.

There have been 95 bottles of its 40-per-cent 'Record Beer' made so far, with each bottle costing 99 euros, a speciality for collectors and connoisseurs.