BrewDog has made a name for itself throughout the brand’s history by pushing the boundaries of beer as far as it could go — and alcohol as high as it can reach. While the brewery is also known for creating some very good beers, stunts create press, and press creates awareness, which is why for at least a decade, BrewDog has been creating one high-gravity beer after another.
It all started in 2009, when BrewDog swiped the title of “World’s Strongest Beer” from German brewery Schorschbrau, by releasing Tactical Nuclear Penguin, a 32 percent ABV beer that was just one percent higher in ABV than Schorschbrau’s Schorschbock. Schorschbrau responded by releasing a beer higher than 32 percent ABV, and then the two breweries went back and forth for years, each one making a beer that was just a bit stronger than the other.
But in early September 2020, the breweries seemed to have reached a truce. Rather than one besting the other, the two collaborated on a single beer, Strength in Numbers, which clocks in at a whopping 57.8 percent alcohol. The collaboration features a blend of BrewDog’s Death or Glory, “an ice distilled Belgian golden ale that’s been sitting in whisky casks for 10 years,” according to the brewery.
The beer achieves this mammoth 57.8 ABV by utilizing the eisbock method. The beer is frozen and the chunks of ice (water) are removed, leaving a highly concentrated, highly alcoholic liquid. But if you’re looking to try it, don’t count on it. The beer sold out almost immediately after it was released, and at least as of now, there aren’t plans to make any more. But given BrewDog’s penchant for press stunts, I can’t imagine this is the last high-ABV beer they’ll ever make.
