Episode: 4669
Title: HPR Beer Garden 14 - Super Strong Lager
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr4669/hpr4669.mp3
Transcribed: 2026-07-31 16:16:23 (official HPR transcript)

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 4669, for 2026-06-25
Today's show is entitled, "HPR Beer Garden 14 - Super Strong Lager"
The host is Kevie and the duration is 00:32:39
The flag is Clean, and the license is CC-BY-SA
The summary is "Dave, Kevie and Paul talk about the infamous range super strong lagers."
Hello and welcome to yet another incredibly exciting episode of Hacker Public Radio and this
is the HPR Beer Garden where we go through and review different kinds of beers and beer
styles so that you can enjoy them too. Can we have that as a slow-completionist for the
point? Anyway, my name is Dave and I've joined this time around as most times by young
Mr. Kevy, Kevy, how are you?
Hello, thank you young and I'm actually very pleased to get that now. That's it. I'm going
notes. I can't really go to go down hill from here. So enjoy the true gaze, bye-bye.
And we're also joined by a recurring guest and that's Paul. Welcome back, Paul.
It's good to see you here. Thank you very much. Dave, thanks Kevy and Hi, everybody. It's
good to be back. Yes, absolutely. We almost feel like it's long overdue. When was the last
episode? Can you remember what we covered? Was it just before Christmas? I think it was
one of the Christmas Belgian ones, wasn't it? I remember rightly. No, it wasn't the Christmas
Belgian one. It was the one before that. There was something else we did. Oh, the British
Christmas beer is one. It's just the Christmas beer. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. That's right.
That's right. So something slightly different in the offering today. Yeah, just slightly. Now,
we're not setting a precedent here. We have done this before. We're not actually going to be
reviewing what you would classify as a style per se. But I'm not going to go into too much detail
about this as I know that Kevy has got some fairly comprehensive information relating to this.
And that is the super strong Lager. So Kevy, tell us about super strong Lager and how we up
because my mind's getting more. So super strength Lager or super strong Lager. No, this is actually
a bit of a problem. As Dave's already pointed out, it's not actually a style in and off itself,
depending on where you are, actually. So if you are in the United States, then apparently I did
not know this in collaboration with this, anything that's 6% above has got to legally be called
not be a but malt liquor, which I did not know that until doing this research. So I'm hoping that
I was not lied to. So apparently if we're in America, this wouldn't be super strength Lager,
it would be malt liquor and then underneath it, super strength Lager. So if we're actually going to
go all the way back to the very first people that did it, I didn't actually realize quite how
all this was because it goes right the way back to the 16th century. And it was when Lagering was
first done in Germany, they went up in the very first to do the Lagering process. Now as I've
said before, we tend to call Lager a drink. Lager actually refers to the process it goes through,
where it is stored under ground traditionally to keep it cool. And it's fermented at a cold
temperature, which is kind of unusual because most the time fermentation should be done at a room
temperature and consistently as well. So it actually came from just at the time, obviously you
didn't have fridges available, etc. So higher alcohol was for the longer journeys, so the
thing wouldn't survive and wouldn't spoil. But that's going right the way back. Let's fast forward
away bit though. So it kept on going in Germany for many say years, except not under the term
super strong Lager that this was a relatively recent term. It wasn't consistently known as that
actually until the 80s and it wasn't Britain that seemed to coin the phrase super strong Lager. But
if we were to the ones that actually started the interest, we have actually Karl spoke to thank for
this. Now a lot of people know special brew. It's been around a long time. I was not aware
that until research in this, it was actually made for Winston Churchill on a visit to the Karl
Sprig Brewery. And the reason they made it was because apparently he was not a huge beer drinker.
However, he said he liked his cognac. So what Karl Sprig did was they tried to implement
a Lager or beer with cognac influences in it. And obviously with it being cognac, it had to be
quite a bit stronger. So this was where the kind of modern super strong Lager kind of descended from.
And it also appears that for quite a few years, Karl Sprig were the only ones producing it as
what we know as super strong Lager. They kept that recipe quite guarded. But however, as in
modern age, over time, people change breweries. And of course, somebody says, I know the recipe.
Let's modify it. The recipes go up and out somewhere. And of course, over the years,
you've had other ones producing quite a bit, actually stronger than Karl Sprig's special brewing.
A Karl's special brew used to be about 9%. It's now 7.2, they've taken it down. But generally,
most of these were between 9 and 10 was the standard. And these were available from generally
along the north coast of Europe, mainland Europe, and into Britain. Those were the ones that seem
to adopt these more so than anywhere else. And whilst they're not as readily available as they were,
they certainly are still available. Interestingly enough, you cannot walk into any supermarket
anymore. And by these, because the supermarkets in general, not everyone, the supermarkets in general,
have agreed not to stalk them due to their high alcohol levels combined with their relatively
low price points. Now, this has in recent times, led to them getting a really bad reputation.
And they've become known in the media as Trump juice. In doing the research, actually, one,
I think this subidover killed total extremist media journalism. One has said that it does
more damage than crack a cane. And I'm thinking, I think that's a bit alarmist. Maybe in terms of
how readily available it is, the number of people who have it. But I am not going to equate
drinking a can of this to the same as having crack a cane. That is just not logical at all.
Now, with the British government tightening up on the alcohol laws and the taxes on higher
high ABV, the earth especially, then a lot of the companies, so I believe skull, Carl'sburg,
and human missing, or tenants, ten super. They all agreed to reduce from nine to just over seven.
That's been in the last ten years. But they've kept their bears at consistent price.
However, the ones that have kept them at the ten percent, or nine to ten percent,
have actually up the price. So what the reason actually was quite keen to do this episode was
because is it fair to call it Trump juice, unlabeled that only problem drinkers have it?
Because there are plenty. I mean, imperial states go well into the teens. And yet, I've never heard
them call Trump juice. You know, so is this fair? So what I wanted us to do today is get a wee
a try of these and just see in their own right is there a good beer in there. So that that is what
I got. So sadly, not as in depth as how I like to have made it, but it actually was pretty typical
getting researched on on this type. Yeah, I did a bit of nosing into this myself, actually. And
it's interesting. You mentioned the reduction of ABV from nine to about seven. And there is a reason
for that. There was a financial reason for it. Because in 2011, the government introduced a new
duty for high strength beers, specifically targeting beers over seven and a half percent. And
that's why the ones that used to be nine percent, which you quite rightly have kept it there,
have actually up their prices because of this additional duty. So those the went down
to try and either reduce or eliminate this higher tax rate. So there had to be money involved
in there somewhere. Yeah, absolutely. But also, I actually managed to find a slightly different story
as to how these super-strength logos came about. Now, I cannot claim any form of validity on this
because I do not know this story's provenance. However, it says here, the by the mid-20th century
large commercial breweries realized they could save money in space by brewing their beer at a very
dense high alcohol concentrate and then diluting it with water just before canning to get down to the
standard 4% or 5%. But then the brewers then realized that they could simply not dilute that
concentrate. And then by selling that undiluted base, they could then market a premium or super-version
of their flagship brands with minimal extra effort. So I don't know how true that is, Paul.
Yes, that's a very good point. It actually brings to mind. I have a friend who used to work in
the Guinness Brewery in Liverpool and he would tell us two, by two things he told us. First
with the water for the Guinness that's brewed in Liverpool comes from Wales, comes from Lake
Vernway. And he said the beer is brewed twice double strength and is diluted as you said diluted
before canning. So that's first hand comments about that practice. There's certainly brewed
at double strength and then diluted before canning. Right, there we go. That's something I didn't
know. I didn't know that was the thing. So very interesting. But it's true or not. It's still very
interesting. Yes, well, we're going to take it that you've done your homework and you're not just picking
up some numb, some numb deshoting on Reddit too low to you. Yeah, you think that, that's one.
Right, well, I think it's about time to crack into these. What do you see? No, I would see
given given Paul is actually a guest. I think he needs to go first. Okay, so what I managed to find
so when we talked about this early in a couple of weeks back and you asked me to come and join you
a few things came to mind. First of all, I'm not really a larger drinker. I do drink
larger when I mean places like Germany and so on or Belgium. But I tend to drink the strongest
stuff in Belgium rather than kind of their you play or their standard stuff. I have probably had
tenants maybe 40 years ago and I haven't touched it since. So when you look at options,
I've gone for something called and I apologize to all our Polish listeners and people who understand
Polish, Puele, Mockner. So I'm not sure exactly how you're supposed to pronounce it. But this is a
Polish strong larger, 7.1% and I'm drinking it chilled kevy. I know you're not a fan of chilled
beer but I think it's supposed to be chilled. So let's see what we've got. Well, that hasn't
got all over the table which is a good start. What can I say? Looks like a larga. I've got a bit of a head.
It's some golden coloured. Yeah, that's quite nice actually. I could drink that. So I think I
prefer that to the type of larga you buy in a pub on a sastionite. Although as I said, I would normally
probably drink ale, IPA or whatever, rather than this or a porter or a Guinness or, you know, it definitely
has a strong, you can feel it's a stronger larga you can tell from the flavor is there's more body to it.
It kind of has, has hints of Belgian larga about it. Really, Belgian, you know, it's a Belgian
flavors but it's a nice, it's a nice beer I would drink that. It's a lovely colour. It's a lovely colour,
isn't it? Yeah, but I almost like covering this or is that just the way it's coming through?
It is a bit, yeah, it's darker than like a Karlsberg larga you see in, I mean obviously the glass
is starting to frost a little bit but it's a nice colour. Yeah, so definitely it's probably not
got the some of the sweetness you get in a Belgian larga. A Belgian, you know, a Belgian beer but
it's so, yeah, it's good, it's good. Now you're going to ask me that question now, I knew what would
I give it an intact. Oh, not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Oh, that's good. Oh, it's just ruining the end
deal for us. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Okay, so yes, so Pearl and Mark, I'll take a picture
of it as well. Of course for the notes. Very nice writing. So while our camera man is at work here,
Dave, what do you have? Yeah, okay. Well, I have managed to bank myself a skull super
and I have never had this before and I am, I mean, I'm not going to say that I walked into the shop
and then walked out with this inside a brown paper bag. But you know, 8% and they sell this in a heavily
promoted half liter can. So I kind of came into this thinking, these are the kind of drinks that
people would consume in order to get themselves in e-reated. You know, that's its entire purpose.
I read somewhere that there are some strong larkers, super strong larkers you can get. The
effectively are a bottle of wine in a can in terms of alcohol content. Not my motivation at all.
But I've not had this one before. I've had Castro. I've had tenants. There's some other ones.
I can remember like shop branded super strength nets pee. But I've never had this one before. And
the fact that it's got a nice gold stripe on the front of it, it kind of, it did me to it's like
you. And so I'm maybe approaching this underforce pretenses. So let's crack this open. And what
I'm going to do this time, actually, I'm going to turn the gate off on my microphone. So you might
have to get a slight hiss coming through. So at least this way, you'll get a decent sound.
All right, let's try a poor. Not a lot of sophistication in that poor at all. It's quite golden.
It's quite nice. It's got a decent head on it. But there again, that's probably the
result of the poor than anything else. And quite frankly, it smells like a strong logger. There's
nothing really much to write home about. It's got a multi-obitone to it. I mean, just from my
bare with me, let me just read out the ingredients in this, because it is quite concerning water,
fair play, multi-barly, glucose syrup, and hops. And that's it. That is it. That's actually
quite promising, because you'd think actually with some of these, it probably quite a high chemical
content. But if that's all that's really that's good. You would expect it so, yes. But it's the
glucose syrup that kind of took me by surprise. No, that doesn't really taste me at all, but
probably trying to mask the alcohol to be honest. Probably. I think you find you need to put the
glucose syrup in to get the alcohol strength out of it. Right. Otherwise, your original gravity is
not going to be high enough to brew it to completion and have more than 4, 5 percent. Yes. Yes.
That's what the management is doing as well, I think. They put sugars in. Yeah, I know something
put sugars in. I read somewhere that some darker brewers put things like wheat notes in to
try and draw routes more of the strength from there. But, right, let's try this. That is really nice.
That is a lot nicer than some of the other, like, palaels I've had. I've got quite a bit of character
to it. It is sweet. It's incredibly multi as you would probably expect it to be. It is well around
it. The strength is definitely there. I wouldn't say it tasted particularly boozy at 8 percent,
but it's really, really pleasant. There's virtually no bitterness in there, which, again, you
would expect. Oh, that is very nice. Very nice. Let's see. I can tell from the face you pulled
when you put it up to your mouth, you weren't expecting that. No. No, not at all. Because I mean,
going, I think I might have mentioned this either last episode or the episode before. I was drinking
the stronger ails from mid teens, not recreationally, but, you know, with a meal or something.
And I don't remember them being this nice. You take your your common garden,
larga, four or five percent, and just make it taste rougher. And that's what you've got in
your, your supers and your extras. But this actually has character to it, which for for a skull,
and I apologize to the skull. Who was it now? As the master and sees that. I think it's, I think
it's, it's, it's, yeah. What I remember from from from from skull didn't taste as nice as that.
So thumbs up so far. No score. Kevin, why did you tell this what you've got? Well,
I've got two, but I was thinking which one. No, but I'm actually going to go with an old favorite
cestral super. And you'll still notice there. It's still the 9 percent. So cestral didn't
actually take down their EBV instead. They put up the price. However, they actually have gone
up mid a point. A marketing this more as an actual drink and not as what may be traditionally
was that regular market. Let's see. We'll just leave it at that. And they've actually brought out
a glass. I'm going to put some white on so you can see it. Is that focusing? No, not more pretty
well. But you can actually see it's a cestral. It's got a story running the back in white just to
make it really nice and easy readable. But it's actually a fairly small glass. And it says it's
designed to be sharing for the two bolts. So they've actually gone trying to make it a bit more.
They can say up market. And they have they actually said it on the website. It said it actually
if you look at it and it says it still uses the Holy Sabbath brewing method. Not sure what that
is. But crafted in Scotland using the Holy brewing method. Now on the website, it's a Sabbath method.
Cestral beer is fermented for a full 70s, including the Sabbath to deliver. It's rich taste,
tempting aroma and heavenly golden color. Along the edge, it's this glass is crafted in Scotland,
holy brewed beer, crafted in Scotland, holy brewed beer. Okay, just repeat to yourself. And
there's a tiny wee what looks like I kind of almost church window with the cestral logo with a
Scotland flag underneath it. It's like a stained glass window. So they have actually tried a wee bit
to up that image compared to the traditional tramp juice. But what this is like. So hopefully I won't
have any issues. And just for the record, I actually just took a set of the fridge right in. Here comes
the floor. So again, very similar to yours, slightly darker than quite a lively head. It's
going quickly. You can see this going front to your eyes. There you go. It's practically a full
under. So on the nose, you've got that multi and like an alcoholic toffee, or stiffness sweetness
there. Yeah, I mean, that's, there you go, that that head's gone completely. Multi start. Yeah,
that alcoholic toffee kind of comes through. I think that's their Damascus bitterness to be honest
that I will, you almost do expect with these. It's certainly no unnatural multi-sweetness,
but it's not unpleasant either. There's a slightly bit of bitterness in the back end.
Like a very mildly fruity, maybe sadist citrusy, but you know what, that's really nice.
Very nice indeed. I'm sensing a trend. Well, the thing is like I said, this was why I was so keen
to actually do this episode because if you went purely by media and public opinion,
these things should be avoided at the complete. But you know, you're thinking, is that an actual
real nice beer in there? And I'm going, yes, that's my apology. Yeah, mine too. This is definitely
a very drinkable beer. And I could happily sit in a bar and drink this in an evening. No problem.
Yeah, and yes, and as I said, just for the record, I also took mine into the fridge. I know I'm not
a big huge lover of beer ahead of the fridge, but I do believe laggers on these things. It doesn't
taste right when it's at room temperature. Yeah, I would tend to agree with that. So is it unfair
then to call this tramp juice? That's a trick question. I don't think so because if you look at
how the supers were used in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 90s, 90s, 90s, then I think they are still
favored. I mean, this is why the convenience stores stock them. They're in the fridge already,
because they know people are going to come along and they're going to drink them. Yeah. So
I don't think it's necessarily a misnomer. However, there is a light aside to it. And that is,
if you if you approach this with a blank slate and think to yourself, this is a beer,
I'm going to try it. What's it like without the stigma of it being a tramp juice? I think you
do look at it from a different angle. And I am surprised about how nice this this skull super
actually is. I did not expect to enjoy it as much as I do. And I've still got a handful of cans of
the banks is god label. And I would put that with this. I would say slightly different flavors,
but yeah, I would put it no longer the same lines. Yeah, absolutely. Yes. Just for those who didn't
listen to that episode, we're talking about the barley wine episode. Yes. The only thing I would say
about it is, I really wish even after talking that up to give myself a wee more head, I just wish
some head would stay. It just dissipates immediately. Same with this one, yeah. I've still got some,
there's not a lot. Well, but it's there. It's on the meniscus around the glass, isn't it? It's not
actually a little bit of the beer. Whereas Kevin's has gone completely. There's nothing there.
Yep. Oh yeah, nothing. Yeah. Okay. I mean, that's weird even for a lager to be honest. It's just
a standard lager. Normally it's not really something left behind. Yep. As I'm going, that fruit
developing more, as I'm going down. There's, I did say it was subtle, which makes it more difficult
to identify straight away. There is still the citrusy lemoniness, but there's peachy nice in there
now as well, which I didn't notice the first time. Okay. Don't even get anything fruit here,
others. I'm, yeah, there's definitely something there. Maybe it's that extra few days, you know,
with the, the Holy Brewing method? Dixon nothing to do with the core references in that description.
Wasn't there? Yes there was. Oh, I did not realize there was a complete novel on the canon,
but I, there's no way I'm reading that with a glass of salt. The whole canon it's actually
got a big novel the other. Right. She was even the glass on that's typically to read.
Yeah, there you go. See? Oh wow. You're seeing why I'm struggling to read that.
born in Scotland, Kestru, Premium Lager is a 9% premium beer from the award-winning
Kestru family. Her master brewer crafts a truly premium beer using the finest
selected ingredients, water from a nearby natural resource and Scottish
multid barley, which is crushed, not ground. As part of her unhurried 9 stage brewing of
Kestru, the crucial fermentation period, last a full seven days, including the Sabbath,
in a process known as the Holy Brewing Method, inspired by traditional monastic brewing,
this delivers Kestru's unique rich taste, tempting aroma. I disagree with the
tempting aroma, there's not that much on the aroma, and heavenly golden color. We take
immense pride in producing a strong character full and truly satisfying premium beer,
which is considered to be one of the world's greatest beers. I really don't that.
Maybe infamous beers, divine drinking pleasure. There you go. They're really milking this
aren't they? The whole biblical aspect. They seem to be. I've never noticed that before.
Yeah, we have another review about coming. There's three of them in the fridge, help yourself.
That was a definite thumbs up. Oh, good. Good. Like, yeah, he went straight for the fridge, but
no, he's taken out a soft drink. I've always got to go straight for the beer, but he didn't.
Right. All right. So I think it is time now, Paul. You've been holding on to this for a while.
So how would you score? I can't even remember how to pronounce it pop-pockly.
Perla muckler, I think. Perla muckler, I was close. The letters were there, just not necessarily in the
right order. I think before I score it, I should also explain where you can get it from, because
this is obviously not your average supermarket beer. We're very lucky here in North Wales, but we
have several shops that sell Eastern European products. And I actually went down to Queen's
ferry, our local Queen's ferry, and bought this in one of the local East European shop there.
And actually while I was talking to the lady behind the counter, she actually said, there's another
log, an extra-strong log, that's over 12%, that you could get in Colors' key, which is another
fairly close place. But I decided not to go for 7.1 is enough, and I might try the 12,
at some other points and report back if it's worth doing. You can also buy on that great big American
store that sells stuff online and rips the rest of the world off, but I would recommend you find
your local shop and do it there. In terms of score, I have to remember now how we saw how you
guys scored this last time, because I felt I over did it last time. I think this is a good drinkable
beer, and I would happily go and drink this in a bar. And I think according to the sort of scoring
calibration I had from last time, that would put it at about a 7, 7 out of 10 level, so maybe
3.5 on untapped, if we go for the untapped score, would that be something realistic?
Oh yes, it's dead to you, it's your scoring. Yeah, and I over did the last one, didn't I think I
would push it too high, but I give it 3.5, but I would say, as I said, I would happily go into a bar
in Poland and drink this, or in a bar in a UK and drink this, without hesitation, it's a nice beer,
a nice enjoyable drink. So, Dave, what would you give the skulls super? Well, as I said, this is
really taken me by surprise, and I'm actually in the process of writing out my untapped review at
the moment, and projecting the score to a score out of 10, this has half to come in as an 8 and a half,
8.5, despite the stigma associated with this kind of ale, and where it was and by the way,
Paul, your beer was next to the skull that I bought from the shop this afternoon. I knew you had it,
so I didn't. I have shocked myself with how I've reacted to this. So yeah, 8.5.
Well, I'm giving mine right in between the pierties. I'm going to go 8. I actually do think this
is actually a really good beer that's plenty of flavour. I was, in all honesty, I was expecting,
when I first had this, I was expecting it to be one of two ways. I thought would either be
very bitter from an overcompensation of hopes, just to kind of masks, like a flavour, or super sweet,
like fakely sweet, to mask the excess alcohol. However, it's neither of those, it does this really well,
and would I have this in the middle of the med, you know, in a 40 degree day, probably not,
for one simple reason, I think we would down far too easily in the heat. However, as a one drink,
and that's really all, I think, you know, 9% I wouldn't like to have too many of them. So as a drink,
on his own, on a, you know, okay, it may be a fishy spring, but it's still not warm, it's still
not pleasant idea. This is an ideal, coming into the lighted ale's season. So yeah, I'm
going to get this eat cheers. Oh, she has a skull, skull. Yes. Absolutely. I think I should say,
that's the Ravi. Very impressed. Oh, tell us about your glass pole. Well, it's nothing to do with
the beer. It's a station hop. So this is a beer that sold in Manchester, and my daughter works in a
bar there on a Friday evening. And station hop, they have these glasses in their bar. So I think they
sell the beer there as well. But, you know, Dave, an odd camp in a couple of weeks time, you and I can
go to the job station. Sorry, Kevin. Oh, very good. Just killing me off, just killing me off
so you're doing. Okay, so we don't appear to have any feedback. However, if you do want to drop
some feedback, then please leave a comment on the previous shows. However, if you want to get a hold
of us on MasterDone, type in beer garden when we're searching, produce an awful lot of posts. So
can I suggest that we have a new hashtag on MasterDone and just call it HPR beer garden. So that
makes it a wee bit easier if you want him. If you don't want to comment, but on the on page itself,
but you do want to give us a bit of feedback. That's a way that we can actually find that easily.
Right, so if you want to get a hold of us on an on tap, I will leave the link in the show notes.
If you want to join, and you want to see cheers to us as you join a beer, or as we are,
in fact, yes, you can give us a toast. Other than that, all I'd say to say is thank you very much
Paul for joining us and we hope you're joining us again soon. It's been a pleasure. Thank you very
much. Thank you. Yes, so and of course, we're to mention us well, what we're going to be doing
over the next few episodes. No, so for the next three, we've got a double IPA coming up,
we've got Belgian blonde, and then we've got double dry hot IPA. So may not say a theme here.
It is worth mentioning that on the list of things we have yet to add to our list of things.
I've got at least four different variants of IPA. The funny thing is we should probably
do an episode on just IPA, by the way, shouldn't we? And that's on there as well.
Yeah, because I was going to say we've gone through all these variations, and we have no
IPA. Yes, right then, so join us again tomorrow for another exciting episode of Hacker Public.
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