Low countries aim higher with world's strongest beer

A DUTCH brewer has taken on the Scots to lay claim to creating the world's strongest brew: a beer that is some 60 per cent alcohol by volume.

"You don't drink it like beer, but like a cocktail - in a nice whisky or cognac glass," brewer Jan Nijboer told Dutch news agency ANP.

Nijboer's Almere-based brewery, 't Koelschip (The Refrigerated Ship), sells the new beer, which is 120 proof and dubbed "Start the Future", in a one-third litre bottle for 35 (29).

Nijboer told ANP he developed the new brew to keep up with Scottish outfits that were also pushing the boundaries of beer's alcohol content.

His previous record-holder, a beer called Oblix that was 90 proof (45 per cent alcohol by volume), was eclipsed by a Scottish beer that reached 55 per cent.

That beer, dubbed "The End of History," was announced last week by north-east brewery BrewDog.

As readers will recall from last week's column, only 12 bottles were made, each housed inside a stuffed dead animal and starting at 500 each.

"It has become a little competition," Nijboer said.

"You should see it as a joke."