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In honor of the upcoming Extreme Beer Fest (Feb 20 & 21), today we’re going to discuss extreme beers. What is it exactly that makes a beer “extreme”?
Certainly part of it is the alcohol content. Extreme beers have been known to have ABVs closer to wines or even above. But the alcohol content is not the only reason a beer could be labeled “extreme.” In extreme sports, for example, the creators and participants have taken the original sport, which entertains the masses, and put a twist on it. Or they’ve taken something that wasn’t before competitive and made it into a sport.
The same goes for beer. A brewer might experiment with hops, doubling or tripling the amount usually put in, and possibly knocking the socks off the consumer. Great Divide’s Hercules Double IPA might not be for everyone with its deceptively floral smell and a powerful hop surprise behind it. But for some, you can never go back after tasting it.
Adding more of the traditional ingredients is one route to take, but many brewers also experiment with different ingredients or recipes. Cambridge Brewing Company, for instance, just put out a milk stout brewed with chocolate and vanilla. The chocolate is Somerville-made Taza Chocolate nibs and the CBC made its own vanilla.
Dogfish Head offers a good example of experimenting with recipes. For one beer they went back in time and recreated an ancient beer recipe as deciphered through the ingredients found in the residue inside Honduran pots, aged between 1400 and 1100 B.C. The ingredients include cocoa nibs, honey, barley, and saffron among other things. While this honeyed, almost mead-like beer might turn some off, it won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival.
In conclusion, you don’t have to fall off your stool after one extreme beer (though the possibility is always there.) Unique ingredients and recipes also make up a good chunk of the category. As do the consumers out there willing to try something new.
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