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The German Scottish bier war (2009-2010)

The German Scottish bier war was not a real war, but a competition about the honorable title as which brewery could brew the strongest bier in the world. The competition was between the German brewery Schossbrau and the Scottish brewery Brewdog.

Casus belli was when the German brewery Schossbrau released a new bockbier in February 2009. The schossbock, as it was called, was at the time of it's release the strongest bier in the world, with an ABV of 31%. The Scottish brewery, Brewdog, released their own freeze distilled bier a Scottish ale called "Tactical Nuclear Penguin" in the fall of 2009 with an ABV of 32%. A month after the Schossbrau have returned, with a new Schossbock, with an ABV of 40% In February 2010 the Scottish takes the lead with their new freeze distilled bier "Sink the Bismarck" a 4 double IPA with an ABV of 41% it's release prize was around 80€ for 33cl. In may 2010 the Schossbrau released a new schossbock with an ABV of 43%. Not surprisingly Brewdog knew what was coming after they released "Sink the Bismarck", so they were prepared with a counter beer to counter their bockbier which had countered their Sink The Bismarck. So shortly after Brewdog released their new beer. A blond Belgian ale, with a stunning ABV of 55% The beer was produced in only 12 33cl bottles, each of them were stuffed in a dead animal. 7 dead stoats, 4 squirrels and one hare were used. All of the animals used were roadkills. The price of the bottles at the time of it's release was around 700-950$ all bottles were sold out in 4 hours. Schossbrau returns afterwards with a new bockbier with an ABV of 57%. The two breweries had then come to a standstill, were it was almost impossible to freeze distillate the beer, without also freezing the pure alcohol. After ten years of silence from the battlefront, the two breweries teamed up and created a new bier. In 2020 Strength In Numbers was born, with the slogan "United we stand for better beer", from the now allied team, and reach an ABV of 57,8%. Strength in Numbers was sold out in a couple of hours.

Method

In order to reach such high ABV naturally (without adding fine spirit) the brewers use champagne yeast instead of bier yeast. They also use freeze distillation, which is a method brewers use use when they brew the German beer eisbock. In freeze distillation they brew a lot of bier, which they freeze just enough so the water in the beer is frozen and then they extract the pure alcohol from the bier.

Controversy