Stories of the great Space Race, although vivid and full of American imperial hubris, have always been little more than fuzzy black and white pictures removed from any sense of reality in my mind. I’m too young, too millennial.
But as a few adventurous breweries around the globe produce increasingly fortified beer—perhaps a misnomer as their “beer” is more and more like a finely crafted moonshine—in an epic showdown for the title of Beer to Most Likely F* You Up, I am finally inspired by good ol’ fashioned Nationalism.
If you watched the video, you kind of learned that Brew Dog is an avant-garde Scottish brewery owned by millennials Martin Dickie and James Watt prone to ridiculous antics and passionate about beer.
This last year has seen an inebriating whirlwind of techniques, beer styles, penguins, and skyrocketing alcohol percentages as they battled German brewery Schorschbräu for the title of World’s Strongest Beer. Last month, at an inconceivable 55%, End of History seemed to finally have it in the bag.
Photoshop at it's best.
But during the time Brew Dog spent creating hilarious shorts featuring furry animals working like Keebler elves in the name of national pride, last week Dutch Brewery ‘t Koelschip released Start of the Future, a mind-boggling 60% ABV beast.
Although their brew master, Jan Nijboer, claims the whole thing is really a joke, it’s obvious that they’ve completely re-construed what it means to be beer.
Sorry Vortex Bottle, you’ll have to try harder.
