No joke. I felt it for him.
Also, I make my own wine and he mentioned a few times it tasted similar to that. Homemade wine is also something you don't want to chug.
100% change of screaming shits on the side of the interstate.
Usually it's the lack of filtration(personally), combined with a higher sugar content (generally speaking, when compared to beer).
Also, I don't use anything to stop the yeast. I just let it go until it makes alcohol to kill itself. It's likely there's a *little* live yeast.
Taste good, though.
My understanding is that a lot of those shits came from the yeast. I know I made a little with some yeast, grape juice and a container, and it definitely gave me the 💩 later on
Isn't it also from the high concentration of b vitamins? The last time I made wine, there was a sludge like substance at the bottom of the jug from the yeast before filtering. From what I remember, it's called the mother and its super concentrated b vitamins and can make you sick if you invest too much of it.
It isn't a malt liquor. It is top and bottom fermented while malt liquor is only bottom fermented amongst many other factors. ABV isn't what makes malt liquor what it is.
He was at about T-30 seconds from stomach evacuation from the looks of it.
I've been getting offered allocations of this from my beer sales reps every year, and every year I decline.
I don't have any problems with carrying small batch items that go for ridiculous prices, but like he said in the video, *Sam Adams* decided to only brew 68 barrels, with absolutely no **true** limitation.
With other stuff, they only have so many people on staff, only so much access to ingredients, or limited tank space in the fermentation room meaning you can only properly produce so much without the quality severely tanking.
Sam Adams has none of these problems.
They probably wouldn't be able to make enough for it to be on every beer shelf in the US right away, but if they expanded one of their facilities to focus solely on this beer they could do it.
A better compromise would be upping the production 4 or 5 times (272-340 barrels in total), getting rid of all the stupid extra shit they throw in, dial back the packaging a bit, and sell each bottle for $50.
But nope, they *choose* to make a 'limited edition ' , cram it with extra junk, include all kinds of reading material, and put it in a ceramic decanter, all to try to justify the $200 price tag.
Hung over driving 400 miles to home and you just ate taco bell for some stupid reason.
No amount of ass squeezing is stopping that shit when it unpolitly knocks on ur sphincter.
I shat on the side of the neighbors house when I was 5. Jk… maybe… but I do wonder when what the reaction was when they found it, did they they think it was a dog? It was in a upscale neighborhood in Southern California so they wouldn’t have suspected a human, but that would have been a huge dog! I couldn’t make it, I was locked out of the house for some reason… hmm jk… maybe.
I made an emergency shat stop at an interstate rest area one night.
The damn restroom was locked, so I had to walk in the woods behind it to do my business. I had some loose napkins for wiping. As I'm walking out of the woods, some dude walks up and says "do you need anything?". WTF. I said "unless you have toilet paper on you then no thanks". I mean, people really spend their time waiting at rest areas for hook-ups? Seems like a lonely existence.
I had it a long time ago (when it was maybe $70 a bottle? I think), to me it tasted like mixing a really strong dark Belgian beer with cognac or something and letting it go flat. I was not a fan.
I had a 20%AVB Dogfish Head beer once or twice and it tasted how you described but maybe IPA instead of Belgian. Idk exactly tho, I was young and drank the whole thing pretty quick. It was the first beer of the night and I remember my cheeks getting really warm by the time I had drank 12oz.
"This reminds me of homemade wine I bought from a guy on a dirt road that came in a 2 liter bottle and gives you the screaming shits".
I've never seen this man before, but he's a treasure
It's actually a functional decision. If you age anything with a cork in the long-term, it needs to be stored horizontally so that you don't risk the cork drying out. This happened to a lot of the precursors to Utopias, which IIRC was called Triple Bock (in the cobalt blue bottle) and consumers got pissed. There is nothing as aggravating as saving a special beer for years only for the cork to crumble.
The metal crown is more to ensure that the liquid is not tampered with prior to sale. The screw-on cap is airtight, but the magic of this beer is that it matures and changes as it oxidizes over time.
SOURCE: Spouse and I are former employees, have lots of Utopias of various vintages aging.
Why couldn't it be stored on its side? Wouldn't it be better to age under a cork closure to allow a little oxidation if that is a benefit for the product as it ages?
I mean, it could be but the bottle is designed to look like a brew kettle. People think that corks == better, but even better wine makers are moving away from corking. The screw-on cap that it comes with works extremely well.
For sure but they still use cork if it's a wine that is meant to age. Something like 90% wine is drunk within a month of purchase and less than a year of production so cork is pointless for those wines. I'm very excited and actively trying to promote alternative wine packaging (cans, boxes, and kegs baby!).
But my point is that the primary purpose of this packaging is for the aesthetic and marketing and NOT for whats best for the liquid inside. A huge portion of that $200 is going towards the bottle and the marketing for the product. Now if you're a collector or something and you love having the bottle around after the beer is gone that's fine but to me it's silly.
To each their own. Most people, when they age beer, do so improperly. The bottle keeps the light, which is very detrimental to the liquid, out. A lot of research went into the design of the packaging, but I disagree that it is a huge portion of the MSRP. This beer is unbelievably labor intensive. The packaging is a relatively small proportion of overall costs, but it does make it a showpiece for the target consumer.
> they still use a cork if it's a wine they is meant to age.
That is exclusively because snooty people look down on screwtops and crowns. Check this thread for numerous examples.
> A huge portion of that $200 is going towards the bottle and the marketing
No it isn't. When was the last time you saw a commercial for Utopias? Ever seen a billboard for it? A flyer? *Maybe* there will be a page printed out by the bottle shop, but Sam Adams doesn't really push this beer. People who want it will seek it out, so there's no reason for a big marketing campaign. The bottle is not cheap, sure, but the real cost is the amount of time it takes to make a beer this strong. Most ale yeasts don't like going above ~13%. It takes some serious work to get this right, and then you have to leave it to age in casks for a long time, which takes up a ton of warehouse space. A wheat beer could be brewed on Monday and sold on Friday. Without looking up the specifics for Utopias, I can say with certainty that a lot of places will age a 10-12% beer for six months to a year. That's a very, very long time for a factory to just have dead warehouse space.
I mean cork closures are the preference of winemakers for wine meant to be aged.
"For long aging however, the only closure with an adequately long track record is natural cork. So to be safe, that is the closure to choose."
https://winefolly.com/deep-dive/chemist-explains-corks-matter-storing-wine/
Commercials and billboards are not the only way to market. Especially for something this small. They don't want to market to everybody because they don't want someone to buy it on a whim because if it's bought without really understanding what it is they will almost certainly not enjoy it. If you look up "utopia beer" or "Sam Adams utopia" there's dozens of articles from publications like USA Today and ABC 7 Chicago. There is a marketing budget to make sure those articles got out there to tell this story. The bottle is way over the top it's got a mechanical sliding window with a portrait of Sam Adams ffs and it's ceramic and they only make 7.5k of them per year so they aren't cheap to produce. I'd guess $20-30 a piece for them to make.
The other high ABV beers on the market (some getting above 40% alcohol) are a fraction of the price. I wonder why?
Edit:. I've not tried the stuff so I'm probably being too harsh but I've never had anything out of a bottle that was trying that hard that was remotely worth the cost in any category so I'm extremely skeptical and would never buy a bottle without being able to try it first.
So just for clarity, I used to manage a top 50 volume craft brewery, am a certified beer judge, and have worked in corporate beverage manufacturing both as a salaried employee and as a consultant. I get the distinct impression that you're guessing at things that you think "ought to be" instead of working on any actual experience. Here are some words from BBC website:
> Each release we hand-select single-use bourbon casks from our friends at the award-winning Buffalo Trace Distillery. The beer then ages even longer in a variety of spirit barrels including Bourbon, Wine, Port, and more, each gifting their unique flavors and history to Utopias. For 2021, we used a combination of 86 different barrels.
> And each new Utopias blend is made from an array of earlier years, some of the extreme beers already aged up-to 30 years. We finish the blend in still another variety casks that deepen the final flavor.
It is not a big marketing thing. It just isn't. It isn't pure profit, either. It's a very, very expensive beer to make. Barrels are expensive. Cellar space is expensive. Labor in transferring through 86 barrels is absolutely absurd. Keeping batches around for 30 years is another outrageous expense. That is a *lot* of cost.
As for newspapers, they don't really get paid for a lot of the stories they write; they get paid for selling papers and actual ad space. People buy papers when they find interesting articles. Utopias is super weird, it's a novelty, and people will write about that just like they'll write about [this squirrel beer](https://www.vice.com/en/article/ypeb97/this-dead-squirrel-filled-with-55-abv-beer-only-costs-20k). These are items that people are interested in, which is what sells papers. Most things in newspapers aren't paid marketing schemes. I'm honestly surprised you need that explained.
I could speculate on the cost of the bottle, but it would still be speculation. It would be coming from a place of far more knowledge of the industry than your guess, but it would still be a guess. I'm not super into that. What I can say for sure is that this beer is incredibly expensive to make, and that is why it's incredibly expensive to purchase.
And if you really, really want to argue about oxygen barriers, read about wax dipped bottles. Give it a screw top, and if you're really insistent it needs more, seal it with wax.
I wasn't implying that newspapers are paid to write articles I'm saying that Sam Adams has a marketing team (which they definitely do) who actively works to disseminate information to newspapers when releases happen. There is almost certainly a budget specified for that push for this beer release for a company that size. So they aren't paying newspapers directly but it still costs money.
Solera systems are fun but it's not as though they have a warehouse full of barrels that have been ageing for 30 years there are very small amounts of the beer that are that old as the solera gets refilled over and over again. They release 1
I come from an education background of hand manufacturing and while I myself did not work in ceramics I know people who do so my guess isn't just out of my ass.
I am advocating that it needs less of an oxygen barrier to allow trace amounts of oxidation as one does with wine.
At no point did I imply it's cheap to make or that it was pure profit. My insinuation is that the beer is largely designed to appeal as a story or idea rather than just being a good beer and some of the steps taken to make it more expensive are not necessarily conducive to making a better quality product if you strip away all of the pomp and circumstance.
They are baking 13000 bottles every two years. If they're using makers mark barrels that's about 84 barrels which would fit in about 250 sqft of space. Not cheap to be sure but a building double that size would cost $160k in Massachusetts being generous. To retail at $240 retailers buy it wholesale at around $180 if they are expecting a standard margin. For something like this they're probably accepting a smaller margin since it's so expensive but let's assume there for now. Let's say it costs them $150 to make per bottle (let me know if that's too low). So they make $60 per bottle at 13,00 bottles that's $390k. In one run. I don't think the 250 sqft of space the barrels are taking up is a huge dent in those profits.
If you have tried this beer and are telling me it is worth $163 a pint as a professional judge I have no grounds to tell you you're wrong. But in my experience in working with alcohol (yes I am also a professional though not in production and not as tenured as yourself) when a product works this hard on its story and appearance a lot of the value does not make it into the liquid in the bottle.
I read a little of that and it just doesn't make much sense. I know you want to have an internet argument. I can't bring myself to care enough for that. Enjoy your night.
Worth it for the end - “I’m not worried about drunk I’m worried about shitting on the side of the highway “
While reviewing some silly expensive drink - awesome
I have four of these, dating back to 2003. $200 is usually the going rate for new release. I’ve actually sold a couple of them for close to $1000 each.
I had the 2012 edition, rated 4.66 on Untappd. Was is overrated? I thought it was the perfect barrel aged stout. Was it over priced? Very much so. I can get amazing barrel aged stouts for a lot less, but probably not aged 10 years and such a limited release.
I had the 2012 edition as well, I was under the impression it was more of a cognac. I won a sample at a beer tasting and it honestly kills me to say I didn’t care for it. I think It was more of the prestige of trying it.
Tastes the $200 beer: “…I’m more worried about the shits. I know this would give me the shits like that home made wine I buy by the jug off that guy on the road.
Now let’s chug it.”
This guy sounds fun lol
Had a friend in law school that bought a bottle of this shit and we all tried it.
One of the worst beers I've ever tasted. Literally would not pay $5 dollars for this shit at a bar, nevermind $200.
Recovering beer nerd here. I was a prolific and decorated competition Homebrewer, Homebrewer for over half my life, beer collector, Homebrew club president, BJCP certified beer judge, aspiring pro brewer....
When I think back about how much of my life's energy I put into beer, I'm kind of ashamed. I mean, I was passionate about it and it brought me a lot of joy, but it was slowly killing me and making me super nerdy, like some chubby, pale dork arguing about comic books. I was overweight and had chronic inflammation from beer. Spent all my damn money on beer. Always hung over on Saturday and Sunday. Always boring people with my excitement about a beer I brewed from some new yeast I procured from a wild apple from mount Vernon, or some stupid $50 twelve pack that I drove 6 hours to wait in line for 4 hours to get.
Nowadays, just give me a nice cold Old Milwaukee NA to quench my thirst after a hard day's work and I'm happy. And a lot healthier.
I used to work at a Sam Adams distributor and had so many of my accounts ask for this stuff. They gave a bunch away to our biggest craft beer buyers and I tried some and wow it was terrible. I used to like many different kind of beer and am/was a certified beer cicerone and I thought it was just gimmicky. Don’t get me wrong they did put a lot of work in it but I would never buy it but for the ability to display the bottle and say I’ve tried it.
I saved a Sam Adam’s special edition triple bock (blue bottle) and opened it ten years later. It was spoiled, and everyone laughed about it, but it was really horrible.
I work for Dogfish Head, popular brand of IPA’s, and we have a contract to use the Utopias barrels to age some of our high-ABV brews. The idea of chugging one of those, let alone actual Utopias, provokes a physical reaction from me.
Had some of this ~15 years ago, and at that time it was probably a couple years old. Tasted like soy sauce. Like another said, overrated.
But I suppose I can say I had a $200 beer once.
I had some of this during a tour of Sam Adams Brewery about a decade ago. We got lucky and they popped open a bottle and had a two ounce pour for us.
It was good, but not $200 good. Im not sure there is a beer that IS 200 good.
Belhaven Wee Heavy is still the best beer of all time and I will take no questions.
For the record I've had this. It's incredible. It's called Utopias or something similar. I paid about $60 for a few ounces of it a few years ago on NYE. Best beer purchase I've ever made.
Had some of this ~15 years ago, and at that time it was probably a couple years old. Tasted like soy sauce. Like another said, overrated.
But I suppose I can say I had a $200 beer once.
I think you can sell everything to americans, just put the shit in a fancy package and put an absurd pricetag on it and soon some american wants to have because it must be something exclusive
This is a weirdly out of place comment. My guy you sound angry at life right now. Times are hard but you got a phone or computer and internet access and stuff right? Hope you work it out man.
Gas station beer?
All the beer at my local gas stations are just the Clclassic ones like Bud and Coors but they also have a limited selection of microbrews but I wonder where this guy lives, do they have a certain type of weak beer that's only available at gas stations?
Some states don't allow anything over 5% ABV without a ton of restrictions, or some other similarly arbitrary number. It was only a few years ago that Oklahoma upped their limit from 3.9% ABV beer to 9%. That means that possibly the [best beer](https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30356/94350/) brewed in the state of Oklahoma can't even be sold there.
Draconian prohibition leftovers like this even make it completely illegal to sell, possess, or consume alcohol in a lot of places in the US.
In 08, my older brother handed me a cup of this. I was 16 (he was 23) and his dd, and then proceeded to drink him under the table. That was my first ever night of real partying.
I've tried a taster of a Sam Adam's "Utopia" that was awarded to select bars back in like 2014, only 8 bottles or something per year. It wasn't good, wouldn't pay for a regular price 8oz pour let alone several hundred for a bottle
When he was talking about homemade wine, it reminded me of this rice whiskey I bought on an island off Cambodia, 1 liter for $1! I regrettably did not buy it but the Australian with us got 2 so I got to try some. It gets you drunk at least!
If Hagrid was from Texas
Whatever I came to say no longer matters. Well done.
I'm sure he's familiar with beer.
Gas station beer!
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Big difference between retail price, wholesale price and laid in price (what Sam sells it to distributors for).
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It has a similar style. It's not carbonated,
Yer a truck driver Harry
Yer a hairy truck driver.
Ha! Merle Hagrid
Definitely a tennessee accent. Source: everyone around me sounds exactly like this.
You're drunk, Harry!
God damnit, I love this fucking country 😤
Well done sir. Well done
Hagrid after he binge watched duck dynasty
Nice, I thought if Hagar the Horrible was a good old boy- the old comic strip.
He’s actually from North Alabama.
You can see in his eyes that he really regretted that beer bong. That did not go down smoothly.
I mean it's malt liquor not beer. 28% abv is a lot of booze to bong.
No joke. I felt it for him. Also, I make my own wine and he mentioned a few times it tasted similar to that. Homemade wine is also something you don't want to chug. 100% change of screaming shits on the side of the interstate.
Why does homemade wine give you the shits? Can’t say I’ve experienced that from homemade beer.
Usually it's the lack of filtration(personally), combined with a higher sugar content (generally speaking, when compared to beer). Also, I don't use anything to stop the yeast. I just let it go until it makes alcohol to kill itself. It's likely there's a *little* live yeast. Taste good, though.
My understanding is that a lot of those shits came from the yeast. I know I made a little with some yeast, grape juice and a container, and it definitely gave me the 💩 later on
Isn't it also from the high concentration of b vitamins? The last time I made wine, there was a sludge like substance at the bottom of the jug from the yeast before filtering. From what I remember, it's called the mother and its super concentrated b vitamins and can make you sick if you invest too much of it.
Depends on the yeast culture and if ur body agrees with it. There are some craft beers that give me the screaming shits.
It isn't a malt liquor. It is top and bottom fermented while malt liquor is only bottom fermented amongst many other factors. ABV isn't what makes malt liquor what it is.
a bottle of utopia!
He was at about T-30 seconds from stomach evacuation from the looks of it. I've been getting offered allocations of this from my beer sales reps every year, and every year I decline. I don't have any problems with carrying small batch items that go for ridiculous prices, but like he said in the video, *Sam Adams* decided to only brew 68 barrels, with absolutely no **true** limitation. With other stuff, they only have so many people on staff, only so much access to ingredients, or limited tank space in the fermentation room meaning you can only properly produce so much without the quality severely tanking. Sam Adams has none of these problems. They probably wouldn't be able to make enough for it to be on every beer shelf in the US right away, but if they expanded one of their facilities to focus solely on this beer they could do it. A better compromise would be upping the production 4 or 5 times (272-340 barrels in total), getting rid of all the stupid extra shit they throw in, dial back the packaging a bit, and sell each bottle for $50. But nope, they *choose* to make a 'limited edition ' , cram it with extra junk, include all kinds of reading material, and put it in a ceramic decanter, all to try to justify the $200 price tag.
Part II: He shits himself
While intoxicated.
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I've shat on the interstate.. while on my bike... I never stopped until I reached home, shame was strong that night.
Something tells me that a piece of shit fell on your back tire while shitting on your bike, and then it flung it back at you while you peddled.
Must have been a shitty situation.
Hung over driving 400 miles to home and you just ate taco bell for some stupid reason. No amount of ass squeezing is stopping that shit when it unpolitly knocks on ur sphincter.
I have a tiny bit left.
I shat on the side of the neighbors house when I was 5. Jk… maybe… but I do wonder when what the reaction was when they found it, did they they think it was a dog? It was in a upscale neighborhood in Southern California so they wouldn’t have suspected a human, but that would have been a huge dog! I couldn’t make it, I was locked out of the house for some reason… hmm jk… maybe.
Bobby Lee?
I've shat on the interstate, too! Wait a minute .. You guys pulled over first?
I've shat on the ^in side of my pants.
I made an emergency shat stop at an interstate rest area one night. The damn restroom was locked, so I had to walk in the woods behind it to do my business. I had some loose napkins for wiping. As I'm walking out of the woods, some dude walks up and says "do you need anything?". WTF. I said "unless you have toilet paper on you then no thanks". I mean, people really spend their time waiting at rest areas for hook-ups? Seems like a lonely existence.
I've shat in the hallway of the interstate rest area.
Gotta appreciate this guy's honesty.
I was under the impression it was more of a cognac.
I had it a long time ago (when it was maybe $70 a bottle? I think), to me it tasted like mixing a really strong dark Belgian beer with cognac or something and letting it go flat. I was not a fan.
I had a 20%AVB Dogfish Head beer once or twice and it tasted how you described but maybe IPA instead of Belgian. Idk exactly tho, I was young and drank the whole thing pretty quick. It was the first beer of the night and I remember my cheeks getting really warm by the time I had drank 12oz.
It has a similar style. It's not carbonated, so I think calling it beer is a bit of a stretch.
It's more like barley wine
Cognac is made with grapes
"This reminds me of homemade wine I bought from a guy on a dirt road that came in a 2 liter bottle and gives you the screaming shits". I've never seen this man before, but he's a treasure
The crown cap is just fucking lazy. Especially considering the recommendation is to drink it over the course of days. Put a cork in the damn thing.
It's actually a functional decision. If you age anything with a cork in the long-term, it needs to be stored horizontally so that you don't risk the cork drying out. This happened to a lot of the precursors to Utopias, which IIRC was called Triple Bock (in the cobalt blue bottle) and consumers got pissed. There is nothing as aggravating as saving a special beer for years only for the cork to crumble. The metal crown is more to ensure that the liquid is not tampered with prior to sale. The screw-on cap is airtight, but the magic of this beer is that it matures and changes as it oxidizes over time. SOURCE: Spouse and I are former employees, have lots of Utopias of various vintages aging.
Why couldn't it be stored on its side? Wouldn't it be better to age under a cork closure to allow a little oxidation if that is a benefit for the product as it ages?
I mean, it could be but the bottle is designed to look like a brew kettle. People think that corks == better, but even better wine makers are moving away from corking. The screw-on cap that it comes with works extremely well.
For sure but they still use cork if it's a wine that is meant to age. Something like 90% wine is drunk within a month of purchase and less than a year of production so cork is pointless for those wines. I'm very excited and actively trying to promote alternative wine packaging (cans, boxes, and kegs baby!). But my point is that the primary purpose of this packaging is for the aesthetic and marketing and NOT for whats best for the liquid inside. A huge portion of that $200 is going towards the bottle and the marketing for the product. Now if you're a collector or something and you love having the bottle around after the beer is gone that's fine but to me it's silly.
To each their own. Most people, when they age beer, do so improperly. The bottle keeps the light, which is very detrimental to the liquid, out. A lot of research went into the design of the packaging, but I disagree that it is a huge portion of the MSRP. This beer is unbelievably labor intensive. The packaging is a relatively small proportion of overall costs, but it does make it a showpiece for the target consumer.
> they still use a cork if it's a wine they is meant to age. That is exclusively because snooty people look down on screwtops and crowns. Check this thread for numerous examples. > A huge portion of that $200 is going towards the bottle and the marketing No it isn't. When was the last time you saw a commercial for Utopias? Ever seen a billboard for it? A flyer? *Maybe* there will be a page printed out by the bottle shop, but Sam Adams doesn't really push this beer. People who want it will seek it out, so there's no reason for a big marketing campaign. The bottle is not cheap, sure, but the real cost is the amount of time it takes to make a beer this strong. Most ale yeasts don't like going above ~13%. It takes some serious work to get this right, and then you have to leave it to age in casks for a long time, which takes up a ton of warehouse space. A wheat beer could be brewed on Monday and sold on Friday. Without looking up the specifics for Utopias, I can say with certainty that a lot of places will age a 10-12% beer for six months to a year. That's a very, very long time for a factory to just have dead warehouse space.
I mean cork closures are the preference of winemakers for wine meant to be aged. "For long aging however, the only closure with an adequately long track record is natural cork. So to be safe, that is the closure to choose." https://winefolly.com/deep-dive/chemist-explains-corks-matter-storing-wine/ Commercials and billboards are not the only way to market. Especially for something this small. They don't want to market to everybody because they don't want someone to buy it on a whim because if it's bought without really understanding what it is they will almost certainly not enjoy it. If you look up "utopia beer" or "Sam Adams utopia" there's dozens of articles from publications like USA Today and ABC 7 Chicago. There is a marketing budget to make sure those articles got out there to tell this story. The bottle is way over the top it's got a mechanical sliding window with a portrait of Sam Adams ffs and it's ceramic and they only make 7.5k of them per year so they aren't cheap to produce. I'd guess $20-30 a piece for them to make. The other high ABV beers on the market (some getting above 40% alcohol) are a fraction of the price. I wonder why? Edit:. I've not tried the stuff so I'm probably being too harsh but I've never had anything out of a bottle that was trying that hard that was remotely worth the cost in any category so I'm extremely skeptical and would never buy a bottle without being able to try it first.
So just for clarity, I used to manage a top 50 volume craft brewery, am a certified beer judge, and have worked in corporate beverage manufacturing both as a salaried employee and as a consultant. I get the distinct impression that you're guessing at things that you think "ought to be" instead of working on any actual experience. Here are some words from BBC website: > Each release we hand-select single-use bourbon casks from our friends at the award-winning Buffalo Trace Distillery. The beer then ages even longer in a variety of spirit barrels including Bourbon, Wine, Port, and more, each gifting their unique flavors and history to Utopias. For 2021, we used a combination of 86 different barrels. > And each new Utopias blend is made from an array of earlier years, some of the extreme beers already aged up-to 30 years. We finish the blend in still another variety casks that deepen the final flavor. It is not a big marketing thing. It just isn't. It isn't pure profit, either. It's a very, very expensive beer to make. Barrels are expensive. Cellar space is expensive. Labor in transferring through 86 barrels is absolutely absurd. Keeping batches around for 30 years is another outrageous expense. That is a *lot* of cost. As for newspapers, they don't really get paid for a lot of the stories they write; they get paid for selling papers and actual ad space. People buy papers when they find interesting articles. Utopias is super weird, it's a novelty, and people will write about that just like they'll write about [this squirrel beer](https://www.vice.com/en/article/ypeb97/this-dead-squirrel-filled-with-55-abv-beer-only-costs-20k). These are items that people are interested in, which is what sells papers. Most things in newspapers aren't paid marketing schemes. I'm honestly surprised you need that explained. I could speculate on the cost of the bottle, but it would still be speculation. It would be coming from a place of far more knowledge of the industry than your guess, but it would still be a guess. I'm not super into that. What I can say for sure is that this beer is incredibly expensive to make, and that is why it's incredibly expensive to purchase. And if you really, really want to argue about oxygen barriers, read about wax dipped bottles. Give it a screw top, and if you're really insistent it needs more, seal it with wax.
I wasn't implying that newspapers are paid to write articles I'm saying that Sam Adams has a marketing team (which they definitely do) who actively works to disseminate information to newspapers when releases happen. There is almost certainly a budget specified for that push for this beer release for a company that size. So they aren't paying newspapers directly but it still costs money. Solera systems are fun but it's not as though they have a warehouse full of barrels that have been ageing for 30 years there are very small amounts of the beer that are that old as the solera gets refilled over and over again. They release 1 I come from an education background of hand manufacturing and while I myself did not work in ceramics I know people who do so my guess isn't just out of my ass. I am advocating that it needs less of an oxygen barrier to allow trace amounts of oxidation as one does with wine. At no point did I imply it's cheap to make or that it was pure profit. My insinuation is that the beer is largely designed to appeal as a story or idea rather than just being a good beer and some of the steps taken to make it more expensive are not necessarily conducive to making a better quality product if you strip away all of the pomp and circumstance. They are baking 13000 bottles every two years. If they're using makers mark barrels that's about 84 barrels which would fit in about 250 sqft of space. Not cheap to be sure but a building double that size would cost $160k in Massachusetts being generous. To retail at $240 retailers buy it wholesale at around $180 if they are expecting a standard margin. For something like this they're probably accepting a smaller margin since it's so expensive but let's assume there for now. Let's say it costs them $150 to make per bottle (let me know if that's too low). So they make $60 per bottle at 13,00 bottles that's $390k. In one run. I don't think the 250 sqft of space the barrels are taking up is a huge dent in those profits. If you have tried this beer and are telling me it is worth $163 a pint as a professional judge I have no grounds to tell you you're wrong. But in my experience in working with alcohol (yes I am also a professional though not in production and not as tenured as yourself) when a product works this hard on its story and appearance a lot of the value does not make it into the liquid in the bottle.
I read a little of that and it just doesn't make much sense. I know you want to have an internet argument. I can't bring myself to care enough for that. Enjoy your night.
The reason most super high abv beers are cheaper is freeze distillation
Worth it for the end - “I’m not worried about drunk I’m worried about shitting on the side of the highway “ While reviewing some silly expensive drink - awesome
I mean it's interesting that there's tens of thousands of people every year that fall for this shit.
"Smells like $11 Evan Williams" 😂
I have four of these, dating back to 2003. $200 is usually the going rate for new release. I’ve actually sold a couple of them for close to $1000 each.
With inflation, you may have broke even!
I like how he has fancy tasting glasses to test the flavor and then kills the whole bottle in a beer bong at the end. Bravo sir, I salute you
I'm sure he's familiar with beer but I'm not so sure he's familiar with 200 dollars. Not all at the same time anyway
The first word of the attached lit. U-u-tomp-bea
He sounds like someone who's idea of what a good beer.
I wanna try the homemade wine from the guy who lives on a dirt road…
Damn it I wanted to see him stumbling around drunk
I feel ya, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that it takes more than a twelve pack of gas station beer to get this gentleman stumbling drunk.
Same. We need part 2 of this video!
I’ve actually had this….overrated.
I had the 2012 edition, rated 4.66 on Untappd. Was is overrated? I thought it was the perfect barrel aged stout. Was it over priced? Very much so. I can get amazing barrel aged stouts for a lot less, but probably not aged 10 years and such a limited release.
I had the 2012 edition as well, I was under the impression it was more of a cognac. I won a sample at a beer tasting and it honestly kills me to say I didn’t care for it. I think It was more of the prestige of trying it.
It is more like a cognac. It keeps like one too, so you can save it for later.
I currently have an unopened 2019 and 2021. They were $230 per bottle at retail price. Can't bring myself to open them lol
I have a tiny bit left. Luckily they are not carbonated, so you can save it for later like liquor.
I would say most "special edition" things are.
Any bottle that tries this hard contains liquid that, if separated from the bottle, would be worth less than the empty bottle.
Me too. Worst Sam Adams ever. Better to just stick with the Boston Lager.
Or just go cheaper and get PBR I do like the same Adams winter/cold snap
I need this guy to review everything for me. Never seen such an honest review on my life
He seems fun 😆
get're donnnnne
Tastes the $200 beer: “…I’m more worried about the shits. I know this would give me the shits like that home made wine I buy by the jug off that guy on the road. Now let’s chug it.” This guy sounds fun lol
I no longer drink but find this interesting. Anyone know how many ounces in this keepsake?
It’s a 750ml bottle (standard wine size) so 25.4 fluid ounces
Had a friend in law school that bought a bottle of this shit and we all tried it. One of the worst beers I've ever tasted. Literally would not pay $5 dollars for this shit at a bar, nevermind $200.
Recovering beer nerd here. I was a prolific and decorated competition Homebrewer, Homebrewer for over half my life, beer collector, Homebrew club president, BJCP certified beer judge, aspiring pro brewer.... When I think back about how much of my life's energy I put into beer, I'm kind of ashamed. I mean, I was passionate about it and it brought me a lot of joy, but it was slowly killing me and making me super nerdy, like some chubby, pale dork arguing about comic books. I was overweight and had chronic inflammation from beer. Spent all my damn money on beer. Always hung over on Saturday and Sunday. Always boring people with my excitement about a beer I brewed from some new yeast I procured from a wild apple from mount Vernon, or some stupid $50 twelve pack that I drove 6 hours to wait in line for 4 hours to get. Nowadays, just give me a nice cold Old Milwaukee NA to quench my thirst after a hard day's work and I'm happy. And a lot healthier.
Glad to see us classing up this joint.
My experience is, to a degree, the more expensive the beer, the worse it is.
I used to work at a Sam Adams distributor and had so many of my accounts ask for this stuff. They gave a bunch away to our biggest craft beer buyers and I tried some and wow it was terrible. I used to like many different kind of beer and am/was a certified beer cicerone and I thought it was just gimmicky. Don’t get me wrong they did put a lot of work in it but I would never buy it but for the ability to display the bottle and say I’ve tried it.
Laughing my ass off. This guy is hilarious, and he deserves his own cable show reviewing beer🍺
So many boring and angry people in the comment Jesus…
Welcome to Reddit.
Entertaining perhaps, not interesting at all unfortunately.
I mean it's interesting that there's tens of thousands of people every year that fall for this shit. Depressing but also interesting...
For 200, the bottle should have looked better than a toilet plunger
When he starts listing the ingrediences and it is not longer a beer in german standards.
They sell $200 beer out of an $11 hookah base? 😆
I saved a Sam Adam’s special edition triple bock (blue bottle) and opened it ten years later. It was spoiled, and everyone laughed about it, but it was really horrible.
[удалено]
Most American video I’ve seen in awhile
Was there a follow up an hr later? If not there should have been.
Idk who this guy is but he’s a pretty funny character
Texas as a person
$5 worth of beer in $195 bottle
Right wingers libbing it up.
I’d call this guy a Stallion but he’s more of a draft horse! 🤣🤣🍻
I work for Dogfish Head, popular brand of IPA’s, and we have a contract to use the Utopias barrels to age some of our high-ABV brews. The idea of chugging one of those, let alone actual Utopias, provokes a physical reaction from me.
Show me a $200 beer, I will show you a wasted $200. Also his arms are deceptively thin for the rest of his body. I was freaked out for a second.
$200 each and 13k made is $2.6 million for old Sam
The amount of labor involved in brewing, tending, and blending this makes it much more of a pet project than any sort of money making endeavour.
I will never understand the obsession people have with how much money a corporation makes.
Id drink beer with him. Cheers
I could watch this guy all day
Well you should try moving to a bar in any small town within 90 minutes of Charlotte NC and then you could live that dream.
He sounds like someone who's idea of what a good beer is, buying a $8.00 12pk of nati ice. I can also see this guy doing shots of 18+ year old scotch!
Exactly. He doesn’t even taste the beer, just does shots of it. Of course it tastes like everything else when you only chug your alcohol. Lol
Had some of this ~15 years ago, and at that time it was probably a couple years old. Tasted like soy sauce. Like another said, overrated. But I suppose I can say I had a $200 beer once.
Not interesting
Then keep scrolling...
I did and your comment brought me back. Beer advocate over here
Understandable.
I had some of this during a tour of Sam Adams Brewery about a decade ago. We got lucky and they popped open a bottle and had a two ounce pour for us. It was good, but not $200 good. Im not sure there is a beer that IS 200 good. Belhaven Wee Heavy is still the best beer of all time and I will take no questions.
Fav video. I would like to drink with this guy.
For the record I've had this. It's incredible. It's called Utopias or something similar. I paid about $60 for a few ounces of it a few years ago on NYE. Best beer purchase I've ever made.
Had some of this ~15 years ago, and at that time it was probably a couple years old. Tasted like soy sauce. Like another said, overrated. But I suppose I can say I had a $200 beer once.
Man, I am so fuckin' tired of alcoholics.
I think you can sell everything to americans, just put the shit in a fancy package and put an absurd pricetag on it and soon some american wants to have because it must be something exclusive
Redneck
This dude is awesome.
oh look another chuckle fuck wearing the American flag as a diaper. so very patriotic...
This is a weirdly out of place comment. My guy you sound angry at life right now. Times are hard but you got a phone or computer and internet access and stuff right? Hope you work it out man.
Damn fam, need a hug or something?
Aww did someone hurt you or something?
Gas station beer? All the beer at my local gas stations are just the Clclassic ones like Bud and Coors but they also have a limited selection of microbrews but I wonder where this guy lives, do they have a certain type of weak beer that's only available at gas stations?
Some states don't allow anything over 5% ABV without a ton of restrictions, or some other similarly arbitrary number. It was only a few years ago that Oklahoma upped their limit from 3.9% ABV beer to 9%. That means that possibly the [best beer](https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30356/94350/) brewed in the state of Oklahoma can't even be sold there. Draconian prohibition leftovers like this even make it completely illegal to sell, possess, or consume alcohol in a lot of places in the US.
In 08, my older brother handed me a cup of this. I was 16 (he was 23) and his dd, and then proceeded to drink him under the table. That was my first ever night of real partying.
Two questions: what was his reading level before he downed that beer and what is it now??
I...um... This feels like a personal attack. This is offensive.
Beer bong is stupid it’s a damn beer funnel no effervescence going on so not a water pipe
Uncultured swine
Nothing interesting is ever said by a fat, bearded american, in an american flag sleevless, with a camo hat.
“Winda”
Was expecting to see Dark Lord.
Did Hermaeus Mora write this description? 😂
Lol
That was almost r/unexpected worthy at the end, surprised I didn’t see that coming
He is jes full o piss & vinegar and now a bottle of utopia! 
That did not go down smoothly.
I fucking knew he was going to bong it before he said it lol
I’ve never seen beer review channels before
I'd rather read the transcript of what he says than watch him struggle to read basic English words.
I wonder why I am so unfamiliar with this guys channel.
Sternburg is probably still better
Far better than taking that bullshit seriously
200 dollars...regular ol' beer top
Alabama Boss!
I've tried a taster of a Sam Adam's "Utopia" that was awarded to select bars back in like 2014, only 8 bottles or something per year. It wasn't good, wouldn't pay for a regular price 8oz pour let alone several hundred for a bottle
Its defiantly not beer. It’s more of a beer brandy at that point.
If anyone wondered what arkansans are like. Here yah go
Dudes a bad ass
Why did he have to rub it like that?
I've had it. More of a low-end bourbon than a beer.
$200 beer - I'm worried about shitting on the side of the intestate
I had a bottle years ago, not that great
When he was talking about homemade wine, it reminded me of this rice whiskey I bought on an island off Cambodia, 1 liter for $1! I regrettably did not buy it but the Australian with us got 2 so I got to try some. It gets you drunk at least!
You can sell the empty bottle to a collector for almost $200.
I could get you a 300 dollar of beer if you stop by.
Yea, you're in a select group alright. Your select group even gets its own little bus. Adorable.
This was such a fun video 🤣 love this guy. Thank you for sharing.
I love this guy, his reviews of the Mexican beers is hilarious.
Have you ever had homemade orange marmalade liquor?
But the twisting action on the neck…I swear I need it like that! I’ll buy that for 200 dollars!
No way
Poo. I thought you were going to share it with others aH well
This beer is pretty amazing.
r/unexpected
Utopias is really good but it's not your traditional taste of beer.
Alabama Boss was awesome during the vine days
Sam adams beer fucking sucks