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What is extreme beer?

Sam Calagione, founder of the Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Del., is also one of the founders of the extreme beer movement in the US. Across the country, extreme beer means beer with chipotle peppers added, beer with chocolate syrup added, beer with triple the usual amount of bitters, making it extra puckery. It’s the tiniest fraction of the entire beer industry, making up less than 1% of all beers. But it’s also the fastest growing, and the most fun.

Other extreme beers

Allagash Brewing Co. in Portland, Maine, makes its Victor Ale with a dash of Chancellor grapes, and ferments the beer with red-wine yeast.  Russian River Brewing Co. in Santa Rosa, California makes a handful of beers that are aged in wine barrels for as long as 2 1/2 years before bottling. The concept with all of these brews?  Add extra layers of complexity to a beverage that many people think of as plain and eben watery.  Winey beers are a hybrid of sorts.  They are carbonated like beer and brewed with the same malted barley and hops, yet they usually have a stronger aroma, fruitier tastes–and alcohol levels that, at 10% to 15%, are two to three times that of a typical beer. They’re also supposed to be drunk warmer.  Port Brewing Co. in San Marcos, Californiea recommends its Angel’s Share ale be stored and served at 50 to 60 degrees, the “cellar temperature” of wine.  Even the packaging and pricing mimic wine.  These beers cost $15 or more for a 759-milliter (about 25-ounce) bottle–the same quantity as a standard wine bottle–that often is secured with a cork rather than a cap.