(April 11) – Move over, absinthe. The new high-alcohol import headed to the U.S. is super-strong beer.
At 32 percent alcohol by volume, Tactical Nuclear Penguin is more than six times more potent than the average American Budweiser. It’s also among the world’s strongest beer, thanks to Scotland’s edgy and sometimes controversial BrewDog Brewery, which freezes its formula for more than three weeks at an ice cream factory, removing water and upping alcohol concentration.
Intrigued beer-lovers will soon be able to sip the stout that is almost as strong as liquor, as BrewDog is now in the process of shipping more than 400 bottles to stores in California and New York City, including a Whole Foods supermarket.
“We wanted to push the envelope and take innovation in beer to places where it has never before been,” Jim Watt, one of BrewDog’s co-founders, told AOL News. "We want to show people that there is an alternative to the mainstream, monolithic, generic industrially brewed beers. "
Watt and co-founder Martin Dickie founded the Fraserburgh, Scotland, microbrewery in 2007 at age 24, declaring their mission to shake up the British beer market. Three years later, they became determined to create Tactical Nuclear Penguin, which they describe on the company Web site as an “audacious attempt to make the world’s strongest-ever beer.”
After aging their batch for 18 months in two different types of Scottish whiskey casks, then freezing the beer for 21 days at -6 degrees Celsius (21 degrees Fahrenheit) – “penguin temperatures” according to the BrewDog boys – Watt and Dickie succeeded.
But success didn’t last long, as a German brewer soon stole their strongest-in-the-world title with a 40 percent alcohol by volume beer called Schorschbock. It only took Watt and Dickie a few weeks to regain beer bragging rights with Sink the Bismarck!, now the world’s strongest beer at 41 percent. It is sold out at the BrewDog Web site.
Beer battles aren’t the only snafus BrewDog has encountered, as alcohol regulatory boards have criticized them for failing to provide fair warning about their high-alcohol, high-risk product.
The chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, Jack Law, slammed BrewDog’s beer as “irresponsible.” Another of their brews, the 18 percent alcohol by volume Tokyo brand, was yanked from shelves in Scotland in December after its marketing materials were deemed to encourage excess drinking.
The obstacles aren’t prohibiting BrewDog from releasing Tactical Nuclear Penguin in the U.S.
“TNP is not dangerous at all … It is ignorant to assume that a beer cannot be enjoyed and savored in the same way you would drink a nice scotch whisky or other spirit,” Watt told AOL News, pointing out that both TNP and Sink the Bismarck! come in small, 330-milliliter bottles with re-sealable caps, allowing customers to enjoy them over a period of time.
BrewDog also tells drinkers that Tactical Nuclear Penguin is not to be imbibed like your everyday brew with a warning label on its bottles that reads: “This is an extremely strong beer; it should be enjoyed in small servings and with an air of aristocratic nonchalance. It is exactly the same manner you would enjoy a fine whisky, a Frank Zappa album or a visit from a friendly yet anxious ghost.”
TNP will soon be available for responsible sipping in the U.S. – but high-alcohol content comes at a high price – about $53 a bottle.
“This product is very much for connoisseurs and beer aficionados – people who seek out very special beers,” Watt said.
(stolen from aolnews)