Now, that's what I call real beer!

[Brian Ellis]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/north_east/8380412.stm

[Brian Ellis]

I wonder if it tastes nice?

Probably not!

As brewer's yeast kills itself off at <14%, it must mean that to make it they dehydrate it. There are two ways to do it, by zeolite molecular sieves (or synthetic equivalents, such as some grades of silica gel), carefully graded to capture the water and nothing else or by perfecting the Ice Beer concept, where successive freezing allows the water to selectively change to ice, which can be removed. To do this to this extent would require several successive steps with ultra-precise temperature control.

[Dr Mordrid]

That or they just add some ethanol while its under pressure.

[Brian Ellis]

That or they just add some ethanol while its under pressure.

I doubt that. The Excise men would come down on that like a lorry load of bricks.

[Dr Mordrid]

I think they just get Guiness Stout and add a couple of Jack Daniel shots to it....

AKA a double boilermaker.

[Elie]

Question, or more of a curiosity actually... I was in Bloomington Indiana last week (who lives close to there by the way?) and went to the liquor store bought beer, wine and port. I immediately noticed is the lack of the alcohol content percentage on any of the labels.

In Canada it is mandatory to print the alcohol content on the label, why is it not in the US?

I even bought Canadian beer, and the label is different from ours.

[Jammrock]

US uses proof, which is 0.5% alcohol by content per proof. So 10 proof is 5% alcohol.

[Brian Ellis]

From Wikipedia:

History

In the 18th century and until 1 January 1980, Britain defined alcohol content in terms of “proof spirit,” which was defined as the most dilute spirit that would sustain combustion of gunpowder.[1]The term originated in the 18th century, when payments to British sailors included rations of rum. To ensure that the rum had not been watered down, it was “proofed” by dousing gunpowder in it, then testing to see if the gunpowder would ignite. If it did not burn, the rum contained too much water and was considered to be “under proof.” A proven sample of rum was defined to be 100 degrees proof; this was later found to occur at 57.15% alcohol by volume, which is very close to a 4:7 ratio of alcohol to total amount of liquid. Thus, the definition amounted to declaring that (4÷7) × 175 = 100 degrees proof spirit.

From this it followed that pure, 100% alcohol had (7÷7) × 175 = 175 degrees proof spirit, and that 50% ABV had (3.5÷7) × 175 = 87.5 degrees proof spirit. To convert percentage of alcohol by volume to degrees proof spirit, multiply the percentage by 1.75.

In the United Kingdom, the proof-to-ABV ratio is 7:4. In the United States, it is 2:1.
Search Wiktionary Look up hydrometer in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

From the 1740s until 1816, Customs and Excise and London brewers and distillers used Clarke’s hydrometer to measure degrees proof. Under the Hydrometer Act of 1818, the Sikes hydrometer was used to measure proof; it remained in use until 1980. The Customs and Excise Act of 1952 defined “spirits of proof strength” (i.e., proof spirits):

“Spirits shall be deemed to be at proof if the volume of the ethyl alcohol contained therein made up to the volume of the spirits with distilled water has a weight equal to that of twelve-thirteenths of a volume of distilled water equal to the volume of the spirits, the volume of each liquid being computed as at fifty-one degrees Fahrenheit.”[1]

Crazy guys!

The EU mandates percentage EtOH on the labels.