World's Expensive Beer

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BREWMEISTER ARMAGEDDON; $129/BOTTLE
At 65% abv (alcohol by volume), Armageddon is the world's strongest beer. The Scottish brew is made with crystal malt, wheat, flaked oats and crisp Scottish spring water. Light beer drinkers, this is not for you. Consumers say it tastes like whiskey with a full-bodied sweetness. A 330ml bottle retails for up to $129.






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CROWN AMBASSADOR RESERVE; $800/BOTTLE
Twice as strong as Crown's classic lager at 10% abv and much more expensive, the Australian brewer's limited edition Ambassador Reserve is a rich, malty brew now in its fifth vintage. It gets its delicate bubbles and complex flavors from in-bottle fermentation and handpicked Galaxy hops and it's sold in a large, 750ml, Champagne-esque bottle and can go for up to $800 at auction. If that seems like a lot for one bottle of beer, keep in mind that the bottle comes in a very nice box.





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SAPPORO'S SPACE BARLEY; $100/SIX-PACK
Sapporo's limited production Space Barley beers, made in conjunction with the Russian Academy of Sciences and Okayama University, were brewed using barley grown from seeds that spent five months on board the International Space Station in 2006. Only 250 six-packs were made and sold for 10,000 yen (about $100 which works out to over $16 a bottle) to the chosen few who applied. Reviews of the extra-terrestrial beer called it light with a malty nose but not exactly "out of this world."





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TUTANKHAMUN ALE; $7,600/BOTTLE
If you ever wanted to drink like a pharaoh, this is your chance. Developed using analyzed ancient dried beer residue from 1350 B.C. found at the Worker's Village of Amarna in Egypt, Tutankhamun ale was a joint effort by archaeologists from Cambridge University and Scottish & Newcastle. Instead of the typical barley, brewers used emmer, an early form of wheat that's very rare these days, imported from Turkey and flavored the brew, which comes in at 6% abv, with juniper and coriander. The first bottle ever brewed was worth $7,686 in 1996, but the remaining 999 bottles were sold for just $50-75.





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BREWDOG'S SINK THE BISMARCK; $60/BOTTLE
A quadruple IPA, Bewdog's Sink the Bismark comes in at a whopping 41% abv, which earned it the title of the world's strongest beer upon its 2010 release. (The title has since passed to Brewmeister's Armageddon.) Though it's sold in approachable 330ml bottles, the brewery suggests that Sink should be treated as a spirit and consumed in small amounts. One review on BeerAdvocate.com [http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16315/57015] described the brew as "subtly ominous" with flavors of "oiled leather" and "the darkest of soy sauces."





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SAMUEL ADAMS' UTOPIAS; $900/BOTTLE
Since 2002, Sam Adams has released annual vintages of Utopias, a large format limited production strong ale brewed with maple syrup. The finished product is made up of ales that have been aged in a variety of casks such as port and Kentucky bourbon barrels. The dark brew comes in an unusual, wide-based bottle and is best sipped at room temperature. When last year's 10th anniversary edition bottles were released, one bottle sold for $900 on eBay, setting a world record for the most expensive beer ever sold at auction.






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SCHORSCHBRAU'S SCHORSCHBOCK 57 FINIS CORONAT OPUS; $275/BOTTLE
Schorschbrau's Schorschbock, the former world record holder for the world's strongest beer comes in at 57.5% abv. Only 36 bottles of the potent brew were made and released in .33-liter ceramic bottles, each hand-signed by braumeister (brew master) Georg Tscheuschner himself. In an interview with Lautering.net, Tscheushner said that he could have made the beer more potent but doing so would break his "beloved German purity law," which states that beer can only be made with water, hops and malt.





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CARLSBERG'S JACOBSEN VINTAGE 1-3; $350/BOTTLE
Danish brewing magnet Carlsberg released the Jacobsen Vintage beer trilogy in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Each 375ml bottle's price correlated with its release yearvthe No. 1 was 2008 DKK, the No. 2 2009 DKK and the No. 3 2010 DKK, roughly $350. Each vintage beer (technically classified as barley wine) was aged for six months in oak barrels kept in the crypt-esque cellars of J.C. Jacobson, the founder of Carlsberg.





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VIEILLE BON SECOURS; $1,000/BOTTLE
A beer fit for a giant, the Vieille Bon Secours ale is offered in a massive 12-liter bottle, which requires two people to pour it. Aged for 10 years, the massive $1,000 Belgian beer has three varieties: blond, amber and dark. All three are said to have flavors of citrus and a tinge of bitterness with notes of licorice.





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BREWDOG'S END OF HISTORY; $760-$1010/BOTTLE
ll eleven bottles of Brewdog's 55% abv beer sold out seemingly within moments of being put on sale even though the cheapest bottle came in at 500 GBP. Oddly enough, End of History beer was sold in taxidermied rodentsseven stoats and four grey squirrels, to be exact. Not only is the beer great, but you're also getting a drinking buddy with purchase





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PABST BLUE RIBBON 1844; $44
he American hipster's choice of beverage, PBR, has a fancy Asian cousin. Sold in a 720ml bottle rather than a crushable can, Pabst Blue Ribbon 1844 is a refined, cask-aged beer that goes for $44 per bottle and is sold only China. An ad in the business magazine Window of the South put the beer in the same category as Scotch, Bordeaux and brandy.





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NAIL BREWING'S ANTARCTIC NAIL ALE; $1,850
Drinking this beer will make you feel good and not just in the usual way. The proceeds of the 30 bottles that were made and sold all went to Sea Shepherds, a group working to stop Japanese whaling ships that prey on the whales in the Antarctic. The first bottle went for $800 while the second more than doubled that, going for $1850. The limited edition ale from Australia was made with melted Antarctic ice hence the hefty price tag and miniscule production run.





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WESTVLETEREN XII; $51
One of the rarest beers in the world is the "Westy," as beer geeks call it. Westvleteren XII is a 10% Quadrupel Belgian ale from the Trappist Abbey of St. Sixtus, where it is made by monks. Until 2012, the beer was only available at the abbey. At the brewery, a six-pack went for 39 Euros (about $51) but the exported sixers sell for anywhere from $85 to $625 online. If they were allowed to enjoy such earthly delights as money, those monks would be rolling in it.