Tippling Point | One Bottle Only: 'Snake Venom', World's Strongest Beer is Not for the Faint Hearted

You want it light this time. You prefer beer. You think beer is mama’s cake when compared to its tough cousins - brandy, whisky, vodka, gin etc. So a bottle of it, which clocks at the max 8 to 11% alcohol, is safe; all it can give you is some ruddy face, a shadow of a slur, that refreshing tang of malt and hops, and oodles of happiness.

But wait before you drink this. Check out the name and measurement of this beer before your gulp it.

Name: Snake Venom. Alcohol content: 67.5%!

Even absinthe, which has the maximum alcohol content among hard drinks staggers around 60% in ABV.

Snake Venom. The name itself tells us all. The product of Scottish brewery Brewmeister, (made in Keith, Scotland) the beer trumped another beer from the same company, the 65% ABV Armageddon sometime earlier.

The brewery knew the potent of the bomb inside, so they wisely put a warning label over the bottle. If you’re the kind of person whose thirst can’t be quenched with just a bottle of beer, be warned, forget this stuff. One bottle of Snake Venom in a single sittling can straightaway send you to your funeral march. Even the company advises not to take more than 35% ml at a time. Treat it like whisky (But remember, whisky has only around 40-45% alcohol. So treat it like special whisky).

The company takes extra precaution that they won’t sell you more than one bottle (275ml) at a time.

How do they make it? Fermentation with the help of smoked peat malt and two varieties of yeast (ale and champagne) do the basic buildup. The right concentration is achieved by freezing the stuff. Not jus once, but multiple times. The science behind is simple. Water freezes leaving behind the liquid alcohol which solidifies only at a different temperature. With the ice crystals removed at several stages, the content concentrates slowly acquiring all the potency to become the strongest beer in the world.

How does it taste like?

No brownie points for guessing that the smell of alcohol overpowers you even before you bring the glass to your lips. Take a deep breath and sip it. You get the malt, hops and a faint note of fruitiness. Don’t expect it to be fizzy. Bubbles dont stand a chance in such concentration.

Brewmeister set out to create Snake Venom prompted by the complaints of the customers for its earlier product - Armageddon (65%). People (nuts!) griped that Armageddon was not explosive as the company claimed it to be. Snake Venom this hit the market. After some hushed silence, there are no more complaints, but only warnings going around in fan pages.

You’re also warned. Here.

(Manu Remakant is a freelance writer who also runs a video blog - A Cup of Kavitha - introducing world poetry to Malayalees. Views expressed here are personal)