The ABV Atlas

Leviathan is the sea serpent of the Bible and legend, the great coil of the abyss itself, pitted against the terrestrial Behemoth on the land as its oceanic counterpart. While the Behemoth is mass on the ground, the Leviathan is the depths of the unfathomable, an ancient thing of huge size that lives in the depths where there is no light. It is the perfect protector of the 19.0% - 19.9% range, the final fathom of darkness before the twenty percent threshold, where only the greatest beers go down.

The two routes to nineteen percent

More or less speaking, there are two paths by which a beer makes it to this level, each the polar opposite of the other in philosophy. There is the traditional way: the traditional barley wine, which is made to strength through the classic process of brewing a huge wort of malt, fermenting patiently, and using nothing but time and yeast. And there is the contemporary American way: the barrel-aged imperial stout, which is made strong to begin with and then aged for months in barrels full of bourbon or rum until it is pure confection. Both beers end up at 19%, but there couldn’t be a greater contrast between the two.

The band’s only leviathan

As of now, there is but one beer known to have ever found itself within the bounds of this band on Hop Horizons. It is the Mikkeller’s Forêt du Centre, a French oak-aged traditional barley wine coming in at 19.3% ABV, and what is even more important, it is one of the best beers in this band. Indeed, the rarity is understandable, since beers of such high gravity are quite hard to find, expensive, produced in very small batches. So one really good barley wine is already quite a fine catch.

Past the band’s limits

When we take a look at the wider picture and examine all beers of 19% ABV and above, it becomes clear that the most common beer at that point is the Bruery’s Black Tuesday. The monster is a barrel-aged imperial stout that is released once per year by the brewery in late October, and the ABV of the drink fluctuates in the range of 19.2%-19.9%. Around the main beast there swarm many other creatures, including its siblings — Chocolate Rain and Mocha Wednesday as well as barrel-aged imperial stouts from American brewers like River North and Avery. There are also some rare brews from European brewers such as Brouwerij de Molen or Mikkeller’s Black Buffalo. Almost all of them belong to that style of beer.

Below is whatever Hop Horizons has actually logged in the 19.0–19.9% range, ranked and broken down strength by strength.