Exclusive: German brews 45% beer

Schorschbräu's 40% Schorschbock

New 'Worlds's strongest beer' set for summer launch

A German brewer has produced a trial batch of beer with a whopping abv weighing in at 45%, BG can exclusively reveal.

Georg Tscheuschner, of Bavarian brewery Schorschbräu, is now hoping to recreate the so-called ice-bock on a commercial scale with a view to launching the brew in May or June. The beer would become the world’s strongest.

The development marks the next chapter in the rivalry between Tscheuschner and Scotland’s BrewDog, which last month launched Sink the Bismarck, a 41% beer that dethroned the German’s 40% Schorschbock as the world’s strongest.

“The lab results showed 45% and I think this will maybe be the finish line,” said Tscheuschner. “But then if anyone had said that we’d be doing a 40% beer a few years ago they would have said 'change your pills'.”

While remaining cautious about the factors that could affect the accurate re-creation of the pilot brew on a larger scale, Tscheuschner said he was “excited” about pushing the boundaries of what constitutes beer.

The brewer has patented his technique for producing super-strength beer and claims to be close to being able to produce a 20% abv beer purely through fermentation.

Schorschbräu’s ice-bocks are made by storing a 16% abv beer in sub minus 20˚C temperatures. Ice crystals are then removed, concentrating the alcohol and flavours. As much as six times the final volume is thrown away during production, said Tscheuschner, who is keeping many of the exact details of his technique close to his chest.

The release of the 40% Schorschbock in December silenced the claims of BrewDog, which a month earlier had said their 32% beer Tactical Nuclear Penguin was the world’s strongest.

In January the Scots retaliated with the tongue-in-cheek launch of Sink the Bismarck, which they said had caused “the sausage-munchers to throw all their toys out of the pram” in a video drawing heavily from the Second World War.

“It’s a little bit of kraut-bashing but it’s alright, it’s my kind of humour,” said Tscheuschner. “I can’t play this card. If a German tried this, the rest of the world wouldn’t find this funny.”

Tscheuschner added that the rivalry between the two brewers was friendly and estimated that the media scrum that followed the launch of Sink the Bismarck had driven his sales up by around 20%.