Boozin’ Blog

This kind of thing really gets me.

Scottish brewer BrewDog recently came out with a high alcohol beer called Tokyo. The ale is made with jasmine and cranberries. Champagne yeast helps push the alcohol percentage to 18.2 which makes it the highest alcohol beer available in Britain today.

And, naturally, the neo-prohibitionist groups are competing to out-panic one another. They claim that the new beer will lead to increased binge drinking, degradation of public health, social harm and cats and dogs living together.

This craft beer may be big on alcohol but it is also likely big on flavor. Unlike thin lagers like Stella Artois and Carling that really do lend to Britain’s binge-drinking problems, this big beer forces the drinker to slow down. Besides, the cost, 9.99 GBP per standard sized bottle, make the idea of slamming one after another a little absurd.

But what always gets under my skin about hand wringing over higher than average alcohol beers is this. While these levels may indeed be high for beer they are nothing for wine and a liquor issued with 18.2% would be an embarrassment.

While I have never heard the reasoning behind targeting beer for criticisms of alcohol content while exempting other forms of alcohol I can imagine at least one. On the wine side no doubt critics are relying on the better class of people that they perceive as wine drinkers to exercise the self-control to keep their alcohol consumption under control. As annoying as that argument might be it does carry some merit. I would argue that anyone drinking a craft ale brewed with jasmine and cranberry is likely of equal or higher respectability than the average wine drinker. These are not the same beer drinkers who drink cheap lager by the case.

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If you’ve ever spent any time near a military base the idea of soldiers drinking beer probably doesn’t strike you as particularly extraordinary. But I’m talking about the US soldiers based in Iraq. There is a strict ban on any kind of alcohol there.

The ban is going to be lifted on Super Bowl Sunday. (Will it still be Sunday there when the game is played?) The army is allowing each soldier who wants them two beers on game day. With the announcement coming through now there should be plenty of time to get the beer shipped to the soldiers.

Not all are going to partake. Some soldier in combat units point out that they can be called up at any time and even two beers can really affect a person after not having had anything to drink for months. Shame that, but an admirable decision. I mean, if anyone deserves a beer it’s these guys and to decide to turn one down is respectable.

Of course my mind turns to what kind of beer will be served. No mention of that in the article but I’m going to be checking on this story to see if I can figure it out. I can get a little obsessive about things like this.

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