Brewer puts $400 beer on menu

Carlsberg A/S ads say it's "probably the best beer in the world." At $400 a bottle, it's now the most expensive.

The brewer, Scandinavia's biggest, introduced a beer yesterday that costs $396.47. The Vintage No. 1 brew will be sold at three Copenhagen restaurants, including Noma, a holder of two Michelin stars and the world's 15th-best restaurant in 2007, according to S.Pellegrino.

The product, costing 357 times more than Carlsberg's main Danish lager brand, has been developed to challenge luxury wines in the gourmet restaurant market and capitalize on rising individual wealth. Denmark, a country of 5.4 million, has 16 billionaires, according to a list published this month by Berlingske Nyhedsmagasin magazine. The number of billionaires worldwide rose 21 percent last year to 946, Forbes magazine said.

"We can feel that there's an increasing market for this type of product, as some of our customers order extremely expensive wines without blinking an eye," Lau Richter, restaurant chief at Noma, said by phone.

Carlsberg has produced 600 bottles of the 10.5 percent proof beer, each four-fifths of a pint. Another version costing just a bit more will be introduced next year and again in 2010, the company said.

Eiken wouldn't disclose how long Vintage No. 1 took to develop, saying only that the amount of time spent on it was such that the company doesn't expect the project to be profitable.

The beer contains hints of prune, caramel, vanilla, and oak from the French and Swedish wooden casks in which it is stored, Eiken said. It goes well with cheeses and desserts, he said.

Carlsberg, which sells more than 150 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 next week on the brewer's website.

Weird... kind of interesting, but weird. That's much more than Sam Adams Utopias... I can't see how they'd justify that price. I'm interested to see how this goes over. thanks for the news!

I'm def interested in the price breakdown, imo no beer is worth $400. The reason why wine can get that expensive is because each grape harvest yeilds a different product (Grape/Bottles/etc) and some years are better than others hence making particular vintages worth heavier price tags. Beer on the hand (excluding the recent hops shortage) doesn't have that kind of variable so what could you be making this beer with to make the price tag $400? It is one thing if this was a vintage bottle or beer from say 1975 and there are only 5 on the planet or something then $400 would make sense. Utopias on the other hand ages the beer in barrels, you get a abv of over 20%, and the malts and hops are some of the most expensive you can buy.....and the $150 price tag is still a bit much. And I thought Deus at $30 was outrageous.

Franchise wrote:
I'm def interested in the price breakdown, imo no beer is worth $400. The reason why wine can get that expensive is because each grape harvest yeilds a different product (Grape/Bottles/etc) and some years are better than others hence making particular vintages worth heavier price tags. Beer on the hand (excluding the recent hops shortage) doesn't have that kind of variable so what could you be making this beer with to make the price tag $400? It is one thing if this was a vintage bottle or beer from say 1975 and there are only 5 on the planet or something then $400 would make sense. Utopias on the other hand ages the beer in barrels, you get a abv of over 20%, and the malts and hops are some of the most expensive you can buy.....and the $150 price tag is still a bit much. And I thought Deus at $30 was outrageous.

yeah the tone of the article was almost a more "because we can" type of thing, if there's a buyer, make it.

btw i didn't care for Deus on a somewhat unrelated note, i'd rather have a $20 bottle of allagash interlude over that any day.

In comparison, I do think the $150 (well, in NYC my bottle came close to $300) is well worth it. I don't know if the article gave the beer a fair shake and I'd have to try it to judge. It seems that it is more of a "if you make it expensive you will make more money" mentality.

I don't think this is about money at all most of these expensive beer projects yield little to no profit for the breweries. It is more of a "marketing" thing to get people to say "hey don't they brew the $400 beer?". I suppose if someone would pay it then it is worth it, but $400 I need a material price breakdown for the reason it is $400. As for Utopas it is very, very, good but the price tag (keep in mind I did buy a bottle this year) is border line but when compared to some of the best scotch in the world I say Utopias is somewhat worthy of the heavy price tag. Oh and I agree 100% with you Devon on Interlude over Deus although not the same style the prices are somewhat comparable and Interlude is probably the only beer from their recent $18-20 series (Interlude Huigh Malone, etc) I've had that I noted was worth the money I spent.

The thing is, I can understand the pricing for Utopias and Interlude... I can't for the new Carlsberg beer...

Utopias is aged in several different barrels for... what is it? 12 years now? Sam Adams developed a proprietary yeast strain (Ninja which, legend has it, would ferment YOU if it got on you, haha) to ferment that high. The bottles themselves are expensive. It takes a lot to make a beer like that, plus it's rare, they don't make that much of it. The barrel aging isn't free, it takes up a lot of time and space. I'm fine with the price, even if I've never bought it.

Interlude is aged in barrels, I've seen them. They take up a lot of room. Barrels cost money. So does time. Interlude being in those barrels means nothing else can be in there, and nothing can go in the space the barrels are in (like more fermenters for Allagash White). Brettenomyces (sp?) is a slow worker, so it doesn't just sit in there for a little while. Then Rob Todd has to blend it, which takes work and skill. I think $20 is a fine price for that beer, it's amazing and truly hand crafted.

So far, the Carlsberg beer, all I know is it's kind of rare and has 10.5% abv, which isn't even that ridiculously high anymore. Maybe there's stuff we don't know. But until then, I don't believe it can be worth 2 bottles of Utopias or 20 bottles of Interlude (what could be?!).