The ABV Atlas

There is a famous statue called The Colossus of Rhodes, a huge figure standing on a harbour. Being one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, it was a creation by human hands that could have been made by the gods themselves. This is the symbold for the 21.0–21.9% range since the beer from this level isn't made in any usual way. Every beer at this strength is something constructed… designed, concentrated, frozen, aged and pushed to its limit by human effort and desire to achieve the impossible.

Built, not merely brewed

At 21%, the limits of fermentation are far behind us, and only through clever thinking can brewers make beers of this kind. There are several ways of brewing a beer to such high strength. Some freeze concentrate it, stripping it of excess water to make it more powerful - the principle behind eisbocks in its most exaggerated form. Some craft a huge base beer and then age it in spirits barrel for years, like a distillery. Such beers – all barrel-aged imperial stouts, with maybe a rare smoked ale or two – come in limited edition, are very expensive and are meant to be served in tiny amounts. This is not a shelf of beers, but a cabinet of curiosities.

The unexpected at the frontier

One of the hidden joys of the far-out extreme is that sometimes it'll give way to something that simply doesn’t belong. In addition to the inevitable imperial stouts, the broader world of beer at this level of alcohol content includes aged saison well above the 21% mark — a beer style usually associated with light, refreshing farmhouse ale, but now barely recognizable. It is a case of how the strength frontier is not only about stouts and eisbocks, for sometimes brewers decide to take something absolutely out of place to this extreme just for a challenge.

Beyond the collection

At the time of writing, only two beers on Hop Horizons have been listed in this range of strength - this is how rare true 21% beers are. In the broader world of high-strength beers, one can find a few more, and the familiar name is dominant there once again: The Bruery’s Black Tuesday, in both its Grand Reserve and Blender’s Choice editions, is available at this strength, along with rarities of Anchorage brewery (its quadruple-oaked A Deal with the Devil), River North, and Nordic extremists like Berentsens from Norway and Hr. Røns from Denmark. These are all limited production aged beers, brewed in the hundreds of bottles each.

Below is whatever Hop Horizons has actually logged in the 21.0–21.9% range, broken down strength by strength.