CNN reports on Boston Beer Company’s latest innovation—Utopias, a $100 a bottle of 25 percent alcohol beer.
“My goal was to raise beer drinkers’ expectations,” says Master Brewer Jim Koch, 56, founder of The Boston Beer Company and creator of Utopias. “To break the boundaries of what people traditionally think of as beer.
“I wanted to brew something comparable to the finest cognacs and ports in the world, to push fermentation beyond what were considered acceptable limits.
“Everybody thought that you couldn’t ferment a beer beyond 13 or 14 percent alcohol. We discovered that if you push fermentation up above 20 percent you encounter an entirely new world of flavors.”
“I started brewing a very early form of it back in 1993,” explains Koch. “That first incarnation was called Triple Bock. That developed into a beer called Millennium which in turn became Utopias.
“It’s been an evolution. The flavors are changing all the time, getting fuller and more complex.”
I don’t know that this entry into the marketplace will move people from spirits to beer–something many brewers are deeply concerned about–but it will help the maker of Sam Adams firm up its reputation as one of the world’s premier brewers.