Strength in Numbers

There seems to be a lot of confusion and, dare I say it, fear surrounding the alcohol strength of beer.

Firstly, I'd like state some facts.


Strong beer does not equal good beer.

Weak beer does not equal bad beer.

Strong beer drunk in appropriate amounts does not get you drunker than week beer.

It is alcohol and the amount of it you consume and nothing else that makes you intoxicated.

Alcohol in drinks is usually measured as alcohol by volume (abv). Simply put, this means that a 50cl bottle of 5% abv beer (or anything else) has 2.5cl of pure alcohol.


Possibly the fear of strong beer in Ireland is due to the fashion in which we drink beer - ie by the pint and multiples thereof. If you're going to drink beer by the pint then 7 or 8% abv beer is probably not wise for a session down the local.

But how come this fear of strength doesn't carry over to other drinks?
People don't fear wine at 14%. Most fortified wine is around 20%abv. And people drink spirits of 35% to over 40% all the time.
So why the problem with beer?

Back to the pints.
If I started to drink wine by the pint or whiskey by the wine glass, then I'd soon be very intoxicated. So, most people don't do this. Alas this sense of measure doesn't carry over to beer for most people. Irish people seem to be conditioned to think that beer = pint. The result of this is if a stronger beer is introduced to the equation, then alcohol consumed also goes up.

One can, and I often do, take great pleasure from strong beer. I drank a 9.2% beer last night - but I only drank one of them (33cl). If I drank 4 pints of it - I'd have been very drunk. The beers fault? I don't think so.

Personally, I don't care for beer under 4% - I find it a little watery - but there are many top quality, well made beers lower than this strength. There are also many mass produced cheaply made 'super lagers' at strengths of up to 9%. I like a beer that I drink by the pint to be between 4% and 5% but why be restricted to only beer in this range.

I treat strong beer much like I treat wine. In fact, although almost every beer has it's own glass, I've yet to come across a beer that doesn't drink well from a large wine glass. To take this one step farther, I also like to share beer out in wine glasses (particularly strong beer). People who don't normally drink strong beer will often enjoy a little in a glass rather than being faced with a whole bottle. Large bottles are obviously made for sharing.

If you can get people away from the idea that beer must be gulped from a large vessel, then you open up a whole world of beer. Treat a 9% or 10% beer like a fine wine or a sherry. Sip it. Savour it. Enjoy it, see how it changes as it warms up, maybe have another. Strong beer also tends to go well after a meal or with cheese and some sweeter beers go well with desert when wine just isn't going down easily any more.

I don't want to get into listing my favourite beers, or the strongest beers in the world (remember , stronger doesnt equal better) but people may wish to know the strongest beer I've drunk.
It's Samichlaus Bruin - an Austrian brown lager at 14%abv. Sipped slowly it's a warming, sherry like beer. Very nice but not by the pint!

My last drink was; Trappistes Rochefort 8, 33cl 9.2%abv