Comments on: Alternate History: XXXX instead of IPA

By: Jogon

Jogon — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 17:57:45 +0000

Carlsberg Special Brew 9% is much maligned, and a lovely flavour to my taste.

Special Brew was originally brewed by the Danes for Winston Churchill. His visit to Copenhagen in 1950 was commemorated with a ‘special’ brew produced in his honour.

The drink followed the Danish tradition of producing a new beer to celebrate outstanding events such as a royal occasion or European coronation.

Churchill’s favourite drink was cognac, so in brewing him a commemorative beer, the brewers at Carlsberg created a stronger lager with cognac flavours among its tasing notes.

And yet I feel I almost need to explain myself at the check out at Asda.

Yet a body of good men (and lasses perhaps) enjoy it :-

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2012/03/in-defence-of-special-brew/

By: Pivní Filosof

Pivní Filosof — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 16:00:53 +0000

I believe XXX beers could be highly successful (and rather disappointing for some)

By: Ron Pattinson

Ron Pattinson — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 15:54:25 +0000

Love the use of X’s. I think I’m going to set up a program to rigidly enforce those guidelines.

By: Curmudgeon

Curmudgeon — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 10:03:45 +0000

This was a way of getting round explicit declaration of alcoholic strength which, it was widely believed, would simply encourage drinkers to go for the strongest. As we now know, as drinkers of any kind of alcoholic beverage are not solely interested in inebriation, it doesn’t actually work like that.

I have actually speculated that, as a way of concealing strength reductions, in the future we may see a return to strength banding rather than precise % ABV figures. Not a prediction, but stranger things have happened.