At 03:20 PM 5/15/00 -0700, Philip Smoker wrote:
>Actually, I think the common belief in my particular
>neck of the woods was that Canadian "ice" beers
>contain the highest percentage of alcoholic content
>allowable in the States. What is it, just over 8%?
I'm not sure what the highest percentage allowable is, actually. I
do know that Sam Adams Triple Bock holds the world record for the highest
alcohol content in a beer ever, and the Sam Adams brewery is in the US
(Boston, specifically). It's 17% alcohol by volume. For the record, it
tastes like complete shit. Heh.
For more information on Sam Adams Triple Bock, visit;
<http://www.samadams.com/beer/styles/triple_bock.html>
As far as Canadian "ice" beers being stronger, I'm positive this
isn't the case. The United States is one of the few countries in the world
to usually measure alcohol content by weight instead of volume. So if one
bottle says "5% ABW" and another says "6% ABV," they've both got the same
amount of alcohol in them, pretty much. The seemingly minor volume/weight
difference has caused a lot of misconceptions. Here's a short comparison
by volume instead of weight;
US "ice" beers;
Bud Ice -- 5.5 ABV
Busch Ice -- 5.9 ABV
Natural Ice -- 5.9 ABV
Pabst Ice - 5.7 ABV
Canadian "ice" beers;
actually the highest I have ever seen was a year 2000 beer I think
also by sam adams that was 20%. All beers above 15% have to be
fortified though because the yeast pretty much die at that point.
bjorn
