For a long time the seasonal bock, Samiclaus, reigned as the world’s strongest beer with it’s now relatively mundane upper-teens alcohol percentage. Then as extreme beers came into vogue, some barley wines and imperial stouts began flirting with the same numbers. Finally, Sam Adams’s Uptopia galloped past with numbers that reached the twenties. Without distillation, the process of removing water in order to raise the alcohol percentage, this seemed and still seems like about as far as brewers can push things.

But that didn’t stop some brewers, whose eyes are perhaps fixed a little too firmly on the numbers, from trying to win the crown as brewers of the world’s strongest beer. The latest holder of that title is BrewDog in Scotland. Now, don’t get me wrong. I like BrewDog. I’ve enjoyed the few beers made by them that I’ve been able to try and I like their approach of bringing the spirit of the American craft brew scene to UK.

But a 41% alcohol beer? That’s just taking things a bit too far. Clearly, some distillation has happened. I haven’t checked their website for info on this brew but as they’ve been very open in the past, I have not doubt that the brewers at BrewDog described exactly how they produced this “beer.”

It’s not really beer, is it? Whisky with a hops garnish is more appropriate of a name.

I’m not sure why this irritates me. Probably because it seems less like innovative brewing – distillation was cracked centuries ago – and more like a marketing stunt. One can’t really fault BrewDog for this strategy. Poking the establishment drinks industry and neo-prohibitionists in the eye has been their approach since the beginning. And an incredibly successful one, too. For a brewery that’s just around three years old, BD has grown at a fantastic rate.

I’d just like to see the BrewDog brewers going back to brewing.