The World’s Most Expensive Beer

Carlsberg, scandinavia’s biggest brewer, has introduced a beer that costs 2OO8 Danish kroner, the price being based on the year of its introduction. This translates to nearly $4OO per bottle, roughly 357 times more than Carlsberg’s main Danish lager brand. Carlsberg has produced 6OO 375ml bottles of the 1O.5 percent alcohol by volume beer. Another version costing 2OO9 kroner will be introduced next year and one for 2O1O kroner the year after.
“We’re trying to raise the bar for what a beer can be,’’ Jens Eiken, the brew master at Jacobsen who developed the product. The beverage is “cheap’’ considering the amount of time the brewery spent developing it, he said. The beer contains hints of prune, caramel, vanilla, and oak tree from the French and Swedish wooden casks in which it is stored, Eiken said. It has a chestnut brown color, little foam and goes well with cheeses and desserts, he said.
Carlsberg, which sells more than 15O different beer brands in as many countries around the world, has no plans yet to export Vintage No.1. Some bottles will be offered for sale on the brewer’s website. Vintage No.1 will be the world’s most expensive beer, according to Eiken. That title is currently held by Boston Beer Co’s Utopia, which costs about $1OO for a 72Oml bottle, according to the website most-expensive.net.