10 Great High Alcohol Beers

Turnt out and turnt up.

September 7, 2011

Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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There's no better beer for fall and winter than one that's high in alcohol. In December, you won't need a winter coat. You'll only need this list. At the bar or at the local craft spot, order any one of these and you'll be set. Every beer featured here sits at 8% or above, meaning they'll do the work of a handful of cold cans. (We've arranged the list from low to high; the #10 spot will kick your ass and you'll love it.)

Pretty soon it'll be frosty out and you'll need booze that works for you, that wants to help you. No beer wants to help you more than one with an ABV through the roof. As Jeezy says, let's get "fucked up like them white folks." Yes.

Here are 10 Great High Alcohol Beers.

Troegenator Double Bock

ABV: 8.2%
Brewery: Tröegs Brewing Co.
Website: troegs.com

Pop the top and you'll smell Christmas in a bottle, aromatic notes of cinnamon and gingerbread. The color, a deep mahogany, complements the scent, the correct perfume to the right dress. Appropriately, the flavor is heavy, the beer's body thick. On the tongue, raisin and clove flavors that weren't quite present in the nose came into sharp relief before mellowing at the finish. Might sound weird, but this Double Bock is best described as fermented chocolate cherry goo.

Delirium Tremens

ABV: 8.5%
Brewery: Huyghe Brewery
Website: delirium.be

Elephants are great. Pink elephants adorning a beer with enough alcohol to put said elephants to sleep—well, that's special. The booze in this crispy, yeasty, bubbly Belgian is more present in the nose than on the palatte. And we're cool with that. If we weren't, if we needed that alcohol tang, we'd be just like our Uncle Dave, who died in a rubbing alcohol accident (he just drank boatloads of it—no Richard Pryor). As far as Belgians go, this is a great introduction, the first step on the road to other greats like Chimay. Also, keep in mind: Women love pink elephants. So if you order a beer that comes from a tap shaped like that cartoon animal—assuming the bar has it on draught—and she sees that cartoon animal, it's like massaging her beating heart in your hands. Then she'll order one, probably become twisted, and maybe make a bad decision or two. With you.

G'Knight Imperial Red

ABV: 8.7%
Brewery: Oskar Blues Brewery
Website: oskarblues.com

On the can, it is written: "If you knew the man behind this tribute, this ale needs no explanation. If you didn't, we're sorry." So there's a story behind what you're slurping and burping, and it involves Vietnam and firefighting, which are all just ways of saying growing chest hair and adding pounds to your testicles. Gordon Knight, Vietnam vet, died fighting the Big Elk Meadows forest fire outside of Lyons, Colorado, in 2002. Knight was a bad mother. Also, a helicopter pilot. Also, a beer enthusiast and accomplished brewer. The beer that bears his name is an Imperial Red that's lightly carbonated with a tea flavor that recalls some English ales we've imbibed. The finish is surprisingly smooth given all the layers of badass that went into this. It made our balls drop for the second time.

Double Stout Black Ale

ABV: 8.8%
Brewery: Green Flash Brewing Co.
Website: greenflashbrew.com

If we hadn't been the ones pouring, we might not have believed this was beer, it's so black. You can't see your own hand in front of your face inside this monster. To add to that camping-under-the-stars-minus-the-stars quality, this ale tastes more than a little like cold hot chocolate, but with a spicy finish. There is absolutely no alcohol taste. None. Granted, this is on the lower end of our list, but the total lack of boozy flavor is remarkable, even when compared to a beer like G'Knight, which has a lower ABV. (Added fun: in the glass, this beer has the same shine that oil does.)

La Fin Du Monde

La Fin du Monde

ABV: 9%
Brewery: Unibroue
Website: unibroue.com

If the world were really to end, we'd want to die crushing a case of La Fin du Monde. We wouldn't finish; we'd die from alcohol poisoning. But for those first, say, three or four, we'd have a wonderful time with this nine-percenter. That Belgian smell, that tale as old as time taste—La Fin du Monde has it in spades. The beer is initially quite sweet, but ends with a crisp, recoiling bitterness, not unlike hitting yourself in the face with a rake. A rake that gets you drunk and ready to call your mother, thinking she's your ex-girlfriend. Then you're crying into the phone and she's chastising you for not finishing your MBA. You're a mess but the trip there was well worth it. Just like drinking this beer.

Japanese Green Tea IPA

ABV: 9.2%
Brewery: Stone x Ishii x Baird
Website: stonebrew.com

This heavy-hitter is a collabo between SoCal brewery Stone, Bryan Baird—brewmaster & founder of Numazu, Japan's Baird Brewing—and Toshi Ishii—former Stone brewer (1998-2001) and founder of Guam's Ishii Brewing Co. When first poured, we noticed floaties. Not those orange inflatable water wings they give children and adults who can't swim. This was more like debris. We eventually decided they were the remnants of tea leaves. And as a testament to this beer's quality, we came to that conclusion after deciding the beer was terrific. So despite being weirded out, we said, "Fuck it," and drank down the pint, satisfied with this bronze-colored gem. The tea flavor is subtle, and the hop finish is just as slight. Stone doesn't miss. To prove this, they made a beer with tea and gave the profits to tsunami relief. Because they've got it like that.

Flying Mouflan

ABV: 9.3%
Brewery: Tröegs Brewing Co.
Website: troegs.com

All about the hops with this one: mellow hops, luscious hops. Hops that make you want to leave the one you love. Hops you'll spend all day in bed with. Hops dipped in dark candy, making the initial flavor light and sweet. Then the stout flavor taps in and you realize the inside of your face is the site of a tag-team match, both flavors smacking down your tongue. Tröegs describes this brew as two beers in one. We knew that without all the fancy marketing language. We felt it.

Double Jack Double IPA

ABV: 9.5%
Brewery: Firestone Walker Brewing Co.
Website: firestonebeer.com

Saucy potsticker. We know it sounds crazy, but that's what this beer reminded us of at first blush. Dark, rich soy sauce and a strong scent (though the scent is stronger than the actual taste). What's truly special about this beer, though, is the way it stays good even when warm. Because of this, we're nominating it for camping beer of the year. Even if you can't get your 4-pack to the creek to chill out, you're fine. That's invaluable.

De Dolle Dulle Teve 10º

ABV: 10%
Brewery: De Dolle Brouwers
Website: dedollebrouwers.be

The name of this foreign bottle translates to "mad bitch," and we're okay with that, though we would call it a "bad bitch" if we spoke the language and ran into her at the bar. Cause this is a bad beer. In the way that Wayne and Drake use the word. Bad. She'll treat you stupid-good. You'll love it. She's fruity and drinkable, her head resilient. In the glass she's aromatic, in a fun, airplane glue sort of way. To boot, the Mad Bitch finishes with notes of butterscotch. Ice cream sundae with a chemical topping—delicious.

He'Brew Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A.

ABV: 10%
Brewery: Shmaltz Brewing Company
Website: shmaltzbrewing.com

The R.I.P.A., one of He'Brew's chosen beers, is not to be trifled with. At 10%, this is one of the baddest beers you'll come across in terms of ABV. Dark but definitely not a stout, this IPA has a grouty flavor. Also, rye. More rye than your local deli slices up in a year. Because there's so much going on with his brew—the hops and malts battle it out on the surface of your tongue for dominance while the booziness pisses on everything from above—the bold taste of the rye helps to even the keel. Really, this is a beer on the verge, making it the perfect complement to the raging and drunk mood you'll be in after a couple. We choose you.

Grant

ABV: 10.4%
Brewery: Sint Canarus & Bierkraft
Website: bierkraft.com

So we lied. We promised you 10 great high alcohol beers and then turned around and gave you 11. Thing is, this beer is hella exclusive. You can only buy it at Bierkraft (191 5th Ave., Brooklyn), the sandwich-and-beer shop in Park Slope that embarrasses the pants off everyone else trying to stock quality bottles or slice pastrami. We love them so much, we had to offer them dap. So, here's that 11th beer.

The brewmasters at Bierkraft teamed up with Belgian outfit Sain Canarus to make this rude beer. The head is thick, the flavor equal parts fruit (we detected some grape—how's that for classy?) and pure alcohol, with an aftertaste that struck us as swampy. But in a fun way. Really the experience was rather like being at a frat party, the kind where they convince you maybe you kinda sorta want to pledge. First they introduce to the girls who hang around (thick head, though you're made uncomfortable by their lack of interiority), then they show you to the jungle juice (fruit + alcohol), then you get blind drunk and wake up in a swamp (swampy). We loved it, but we're machines that run on nostalgia. If you haven't had these experiences, this beer might strike (literally and figuratively) as an experience beyond your years, in which case you'll profess to love it, because that's what's really cool: not being yourself. Drink on, brosephs.