One of the great things about beer is its low ABV, allowing you to casually sip on multiple beers and gradually build a buzz. The ease of tossing a few back is part of its appeal, but there’s one beer out there that’s so strong, it can only be purchased one bottle at a time.
The folks at the Scottish brewery Brewmeister created Snake Venom beer, a beer that weighs in at 67.5 percent ABV. Reminder: your typical vodka only comes in around 40 percent, which has earned Snake Venom the title of strongest beer in the world.
The fortified beer is made from Champagne yeast and ale yeast along with a smoked peat malt that is then frozen to carry out the Eisenbock technique. This technique requires the beer to be frozen during fermentation to allow the water present in the beer to form ice crystals. The ice crystals are then removed from the beer causing the beer’s ABV to increase. Because of the brew’s high alcohol content, it doesn’t have carbonation like a regular beer, begging the question, “Is this actually a beer, or just hard alcohol?” We’re not too sure on that one.
This isn’t Brewmeister’s first stab at making a seriously strong beer. Back in 2012, they turned out their first batch which broke the record for the strongest beer in the world at 65 percent ABV, and then just a year later, they broke their own record with Snake Venom.
With a limit of one 330 mL bottle per order, and multiple labels on the bottle warning drinkers of the bottle’s extremely strong contents, we’re definitely going to follow their advice and only sip it 35 mL at a time.
Although Snake Venom may have the highest alcohol content, Brewmeister isn’t the only crew cooking up some crazy strong beers. Other beermakers have produced some high ABV beers like the Schorschbock 57 from Germany at 57 percent ABV, Start the Future from the Netherlands at 60 percent ABV and the Tactical Nuclear Penguin from the UK at 32 percent ABV.
If you’re considering testing one of these brews, be forewarned, with the higher ABV comes a higher price tag even though most are sold individually. Expect to see bottles ranging from $60 to $200, but it’s all part of the experience, right?
