For the past six years, the Boston Beer Company has released a limited quantity batch of their "extreme beer," named rather optimistically, Utopias. Though it's technically a beer, it doesn't really drink, or get you drunk, quite like a beer. With 27 percent alcohol by volume (most beers have around five), Utopias packs quite a punch. And it will also do a number on your wallet: one bottle of Utopias costs about $150, depending on where you buy it.
But all that is common knowledge. Since we wanted to learn more, we called up Sam Adams brewer Grant Wood and began quizzing him on the making, history, and consumption of Utopias. Here are six things we learned.
The brewing process is Top Secret—but it involves plenty of yeast.
"We don't talk about the process," Wood told us just minutes after we began our chat. "But I can tell you that we used a couple of different yeasts to drive the fermentation. We select them from—believe it or not, these exist—a yeast library. We have a pretty intensive fermentation process that takes at least a year. We run them until they drop, basically. We also feed it continually during the fermentation—we feed it maple syrup, which gives the yeast plenty of sugar to eat, and adds to the flavor."
It comes from a (sort of) long line of extreme Sam beers.
The history of Utopias really starts back in 1993, Wood explained, when Jim Koch and the brewers worked on a strong dark beer called Triple Bock that was about 18 percent alcohol by volume. "This was one of the very first extreme beers that were ever produced," says Wood. They continued the process with the 1999 Millennial beer, and finally began brewing Utopias six years ago.
It doesn't taste like anything.
"It tastes like itself," Wood told us. "There is really nothing else in the flavor realm." Though it is a beer, and it has been tasted against some of the world's finest ports and cognacs, the taste is difficult to describe and entirely unique. "We're trying to push the envelope on what beer can be," he explains.
Some of it's really, really old.
Though every barrel of the 2011 Utopias is aged at least a year, the entire batch gets an extra kick of flavor from the addition of previous year's brews, some of which have been sitting around the brewery for up to 15 years. "The taste really changes over the years. It gets both sweeter and smoother."
It's a pain to make.
When asked why it's so expensive, Wood replied, "It's an arduous process to make it. It's an intensive week of brewing when we make it, and it needs 24-hour monitoring and attention. The fermentation and light needs to be attended to constantly." He adds, "it's a special beverage."
You can cook with it.
That is, if you're so inclined. Wood, who doesn't like to suggest food pairings, does admit that you can mix it with food—in a slightly more literal way. "We've added a touch of it to clam chowder, believe it or not, and it kind of opens up the chowder and reduces the creaminess." He tells us that it can also substitute for bourbon or rum in cheesecakes. Though we can't imagine cooking with such an expensive drink, a Utopias cake sounds like... well, gastronomic utopia.
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