Beers from 24.0–24.9% ABV
The formless first things. Beer at the strength where its very definition dissolves.
The 24.0% to 24.9% band... past the last named monsters, into the formless deep. No beer has yet been logged here on Hop Horizons, and at this strength "beer" itself begins to lose its shape - reached by ice, exotic yeast or methods blurring the line entirely.
The Primordials are not a beast but a state – those formless, nameless beginnings that came before anything had shape or order, or before the world appeared as we know it. Again and again, mythology begins with a formless deep: Greek Chaos, the Norse Ginnungagap, or the primordial waters found in several creation traditions. The 24.0–24.9% band belongs to the Primordials because it is here that the Atlas leaves behind its named beasts and passes into realms where even the definition of “beer” begins to lose its shape. What is a beer, really, when almost a quarter of its volume is alcohol?
Below this level, it was generally clear enough what was being made, be it stout, barley wine or eisbock. Up here, everything becomes hazier and stranger. The wider world of 24% beer contains a remarkable variety of approaches, as though every possible road to the impossible were being followed at once. There are freeze-concentrated eisbocks, stouts and other strong ales; cognac-barrel-aged fruit beers; and even a conventionally fermented IPA taken to this strength with exceptionally alcohol-tolerant yeast. At the very edge sits an alcoholic “root beer”, a fascinating but decidedly borderline member of the beer family. Style does not disappear entirely at this strength, but its familiar boundaries begin to bend.
Most beers in this range arrive by one of two paths. The first and most common is freeze concentration, in which a strong base beer is repeatedly frozen and some of its water is removed as ice, leaving a progressively smaller, denser and stronger liquid behind. This is the principle of eisbock taken almost to its breaking point. The second, much rarer path is fermentation to an extreme limit, using highly alcohol-tolerant yeast, an enormous quantity of fermentable malt and careful management of the fermentation. Japan’s 24.5% Heaven’s Door is a striking modern example of that second route.
No beer has yet been entered into Hop Horizons within this range, which is hardly surprising. Beers of this strength are generally experimental, expensive and made in very small quantities. Nevertheless, the band is not completely empty in the wider world. Its inhabitants include Dutch freeze-concentrated eisbocks, France’s cognac-aged Slice of Heaven, Japan’s remarkable naturally fermented Heaven’s Door, and a scattering of tiny experimental releases from brewers elsewhere in Europe and beyond. To taste even one is unusual; to assemble a collection of them would be an achievement in itself.
None of the beers below has yet been logged on Hop Horizons. Published strengths for experimental and freeze-concentrated beers should always be read in the context of their particular batch or edition.
Repubrew
A rare example of a beer reaching this band through fermentation rather than freezing. Repubrew used specialised alcohol-tolerant yeast and approximately five times its usual quantity of malt. Only 100 cans were reportedly produced, and Japanese law classified the finished 24.5% drink as a spirit rather than beer.
La Débauche
A freeze-concentrated beer made with cherries and Brettanomyces, then matured for twenty months in cognac barrels. Its combination of ice concentration, fruit, wild yeast and extended barrel ageing makes it an especially fitting inhabitant of this formless band.
Brouwerij Bliksem
A Dutch eisbock carrying the brewery’s heavy-metal character into the extreme-strength world. It represents the band’s most recognisable route: a powerful base beer reduced by cold into something far denser and stronger.
’t Brabants Bier Genootschap
A freeze-concentrated Grand Cru given an additional spirits-barrel dimension through maturation in a Jack Daniel’s barrel. It combines two of extreme beer’s characteristic techniques: concentration by ice and ageing in whiskey-soaked oak.
Ability Brewing Project
An extremely small-scale experimental release whose name announces its method rather neatly. It belongs to the modern wave of brewers applying repeated freezing to styles far beyond the traditional Bavarian eisbock.
Örsundsbrew
A stout freeze-concentrated to 24%, with maple character and bourbon-treated American oak added afterwards. The result sits somewhere between imperial stout, eisbock and an experimental beer liqueur.
Browar NOOK
A scarcely documented Polish ice-concentrated release and a good illustration of how obscure this band becomes. Some of its inhabitants survive in specialist beer catalogues and personal records long after the physical bottles have disappeared.
Small Town Brewery / Not Your Father’s
A reported draught-only or highly limited version aged with applewood and white oak. Its status is deliberately included with a qualification: alcoholic root beer occupies the uncertain boundary between flavoured beer, malt beverage and liqueur-like speciality drink. Few products better illustrate this band’s loss of definition.
No beers have yet been logged on Hop Horizons in the 24.0–24.9% range. Should one ever be, it will appear below, broken down strength by strength.
Bars are on a 0–100% scale; a missing bar (—) means no scored beers at that strength, not a score of zero.
No beers at exactly 24.0% ABV have yet been added to Hop Horizons.
No beers at exactly 24.1% ABV have yet been added to Hop Horizons.
No beers at exactly 24.2% ABV have yet been added to Hop Horizons.
No beers at exactly 24.3% ABV have yet been added to Hop Horizons.
No beers at exactly 24.4% ABV have yet been added to Hop Horizons.
No beers at exactly 24.5% ABV have yet been added to Hop Horizons.
No beers at exactly 24.6% ABV have yet been added to Hop Horizons.
No beers at exactly 24.7% ABV have yet been added to Hop Horizons.
No beers at exactly 24.8% ABV have yet been added to Hop Horizons.
No beers at exactly 24.9% ABV have yet been added to Hop Horizons.