Mensch tracht, und Gott lacht

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Great News from Germany

Germany has not been known for great technological advances in recent decades, so the following Reuters report is a very hopeful sign that the nation has overcome its doldrums:

A German brewer has concocted what he says is the world's strongest beer, a potent drink with an alcohol content of 25.4 percent that is served in a shot glass.

"Everyone who has tried it is enthusiastic. It tastes like a quirky mixture of beer and sherry," said Bavarian brewer Harald Schneider.

Schneider, who lives in southern Germany where beer is a tradition, said his beer fermented for 12 weeks for an alcohol content twice that of Germany's other strongest beers.

"People will only be able to drink two or three glasses, otherwise they'll drop like flies," he said.

Schneider expects the holders of the world's strongest beer, the Boston Beer Company, to put up a fight.

"I'm pretty sure the Americans have something up their sleeve."

I'm certain he's right. Sad to say, Reuters droppped the ball in failing to answer the most important question—"Where can Mr. S. T. Karnick purchase some of this miraculous elixir?"—but we cannot fault them for concentrating on the big picture. This is the kind of international economic competition that makes the world a much better place. To Herr Schneider and his crack team, we say, Sehr gut!

2 comments:

Kathy Hutchins said...

Obviously this is a huge trade secret, but I'm trying to figure out how he does this. How does he get that much alcohol converted out of the sugar levels in barley? Why doesn't that level of alcohol kill the yeast? They've got serious purity laws in Germany, so he can't be horsing around with the ingredients the way that Bulmer has with cider in the UK with their juice concentrates and sucrose additions (producing a noxious brew us cider snobs call 'alcopop').

Matt Huisman said...

It's good to see that Germany still has some entrepreneurial spirit(s).

However, if you believe Mark Steyn, they're going to need something a lot stronger.