BrewDog Celebrates End Of Ohio ABV Limit With 55 Percent Beer
Courtesy of BrewDog

Ohio only removed a law prohibiting  beer with an alcohol content higher than 12 percent from the books on August 31, but there are already plans to brew the third-strongest beer in the world there.

BrewDog’s 55 percent alcohol by volume beer, called “End of History,” will be the first beer brewed at BrewDog’s new 100,000-square-foot brewery in Canal Winchester, Ohio, the brewery recently announced. Even if you don’t know what End of History is by name, you’d probably recognize the packaging: a taxidermied squirrel filled with a beer bottle with a bottle top peeking out of its open mouth.

Prior to Ohio House Bill 37, which was signed on May 31 and went into effect on August 31, beer with more than 12 percent alcohol by volume couldn’t be made or sold in the state. The limit was constrictive for craft brewers, to say the least. So what better way to break into a new era than with the End of History?

“Today is a red-letter day for the Ohio beer scene — a milestone set to be written into brewery ledgers the length and breadth of the state,” BrewDog wrote on its website. “August 31st, 2016 officially sees the lifting of the draconian legislation that previously made it illegal for breweries in Ohio to brew beer over 12 percent abv. From this day forward, craft beer in the state has no limits. And we are going to mark that in the only way we know.”

Ohio is getting a freak of a beer. The Belgian-style ale is first fermented, then frozen to remove excess water, Beer Street Journal explains. Then the freeze process starts all over again until the alcohol hits a throat-burning level.

The first End of History was brewed in 2010, and only 12 bottles went out. Don’t think that it’ll be any easier to get one made in Ohio just because it’ll be made stateside, though. Anyone who wants a bottle will need to first invest $20,000 into the crowdfunding initiative Equity for Punks, and then pay whatever market price is set for the new End of History. Regardless, it’s quite a statement for the future of high-percent beers in Ohio.