Grizzly Growler

BrewDog - Fraserburgh, Scotland

According to this article in The Guardian, a Scottish brewery is claiming to have brewed the world’s strongest beer. At 32-percent ABV, the Tactical Nuclear Penguin would eclipse the Samuel Adams Utopias, which boasts a 27-percent ABV. Retailing for £30 per bottle or £250 for a bottle and one share in the company, it certainly is less expensive than Utopias, which is is selling for $150.00 a bottle stateside.

BrewDog, which began brewing in 2007 on the north east coast of Scotland, has a reputation for brewing beers that test the boundaries of a marketing watchdog firm that keeps a strict code of conduct for how brewers may name and market their beer. Many of their earliest beers were investigated for having names like Punk IPA, Riptide and Hoprock, and one beer, called Speedball, was banned by the watchdog firm. The company later renamed the beer Dogma, according to The Guardian.

There is something about this brewer in Scotland that I like. That they stand up for their product, which is so much more costly than standard beer as to make it cost prohibitive to youngsters, is a good thing. It’s one thing to put Joe Cool on a box of cigarettes and market them to children, it’s another thing to brew specialty ales and market them under distinct names that create some visual of what the beer tastes like.

It’s the same here in the states. Rather than fight the large, commercial breweries who produce alcapops and inexpensive high-gravity ales that are so much more accessible to the masses, the government picks on small breweries that do not have the money to hire large PR firms and lobbyists to protect their interests.

That big, industrial brewers would put millions of dollars into marketing alcohol to children, while at the same time giving a lot of money to alcohol treatment programs is a testimony to how out-of-balance big financially interested companies are. A brewery in a small town that produces many styles for its patrons should not be marginalized by society’s bigger demons, namely money and greed. Craft brewers are not the problem in this country or in Scotland. Big money can effectively hide the sins of the corporations, but it’s time for people to wake up and see that they have been seeing through a lot of wool.

Well-crafted beer in any form has been a mainstay in many communities around the world for the last 10,000 years. The neo-prohibitionists out there would mistakenly characterize beer as the demon and not the designed marketing and carefully measured campaigns to bring cheap, alcohol products to the masses.

For Montana legislators, you have a chance to help make brewing a big industry in Montana and a tourist attraction. Is there underage drinking in Montana? Of course. Is there an issue with over-consumption on Montana’s reservations? Of course. Can you trace this problem back to the microbrewery’s in this state? Absolutely not. Where is the problem then? Cheap, under-regulated liquor and malt beverages that find their way into grocery stores, convenience marts and gas stations is part of the problem. Making drinking sexy and desirable through high-dollar ad campaigns is part of the problem. Politicians looking the other way while big beverage companies sell cheap alcapops everywhere is part of the problem.

Montana’s craft breweries are not the problem. In fact, I’d go so far as to say they are part of the solution. By promoting responsible drinking and limiting patrons, Montana’s craft breweries have created a desirable environment to bring your kids and enjoy good conversation over a round of interesting libations. Montana’s craft breweries bring communities together, they do not split them a part. It’s time to get real and allow them the same rights and responsibilities of any other business in this state.

Prost,

GG