9 of the World's Most Expensive Beers ~ DepoTech

It’s easy to get lost in a sea of seasonals and special releases when wandering across the ever-expanding world of microbrews. Almost every brewery these days issues a special-edition batch that fetches a serious premium. Just how expensive can these limited production brews get? These six wallet-busters prove that beer can also be experienced on a Champagne budget.

1-TUTANKHAMUN ALE

Price: $75/500ml

ABV: 6%

In 1990, Cambridge archaeologist Dr. Barry Kemp unearthed Queen Nefertiti's Royal Brewery. He found ten brewing chambers buried beneath the Egyptian sand. Each contained traces of ancient beer residue. With the help of an electron microscope, fellow scientist Dr. Delwen Samuel analyzed the residues to quantify the 3,250-year-old recipe. The researchers then teamed up with Scottish brewer Jim Merrington, who made 1000 bottles of the Queen's brew. The first sold for $7,686, but the price tag eventually dipped to $75 per bottle. Years later, Merrington's breweries closed down. Did Tut's curse strike again?

2-BREWDOG'S SINK THE BISMARCK

Price: $80/375ml

ABV: 41%

What do you do when a standard IPA isn’t enough? If you’re Scotland’s BrewDog brewery you multiply it by four. Released in 2010, this quadruple IPA has four times as many hops, it’s freeze-distilled four times and is four times as bitter as a conventional beer. The end result is a potent 41% ABV—and a hefty bar tab. If your motto is “drink, pee, repeat,” this probably isn’t the beer for you.

3-CROWN AMBASSADOR RESERVE

Price: $90/750ml
ABV: 10.2%

If Foster's is Australian for beer, then Crown Ambassador Reserve must be Australian forexpensive beer. Aged in French oak barrels for 12 months and packaged in a champagne bottle, Crown pitches Ambassador as an alternative to wine. The Australian brewer has produced four iterations since 2008, each batch limited to 8,000 bottles.

4-SAPPORO'S SPACE BARLEY

Price: $110/six-pack
ABV: 5.5%

In 2006, Japanese and Russian scientists tested how well barley could grow in space. They rocketed barley seeds to the International Space Station and planted them aboard the Zvezda Service Module. After spending five months in orbit, the fourth-generation of barley was brought back to earth, where Japanese brewer Sapporo fermented it into the world's first space beer. A six-pack costs $110—not bad, considering it was imported from the cosmos.

5-SAMUEL ADAMS' UTOPIAS

Price: $150/700ml
ABV: 27%

Boston brewer Samuel Adams has been producing its Utopia edition every two years since 2002. The aged, uncarbonated beer resembles a fine sherry or cognac more than it does a bottle of suds. So much so, it’s recommended that you serve this brew at room temperature. Each batch is aged in brandy, bourbon and Scotch casks for up to 18 years and is generally limited to less than 15,000 bottles per run—making it highly coveted among beer aficionados. As a bonus, each series of Utopias is bottled in numbered, ceramic decanters.

6-SCHORSCHBRÄU'S SCHORSCHBOCK 57

Price: $275/330ml
ABV: 57.5%

Dubbed “the strongest beer in the world,” Schorschbräu’s Schorschbock 57 is a mind-boggling 110-proof bock. Anything higher would breach Germany’s 500-year-old Beer Purity Law. Tasters have described this beer as everything from smoky and nutty to overpowering and breathtaking. Produced in 2011, Schorschbock 57 was a limited edition brew that yielded just 36 bottles.

7-CARLSBERG'S JACOBSEN VINTAGE

Price: $400/375ml
ABV: 10.5%

The Danish company launched "the vintage trilogy" in 2008 to challenge the luxury wine market. This barley wine is matured in Swedish and French oak barrels for six months and supposedly tastes like vanilla and cocoa, with hints of peaty "tar and rope." Sold at upscale restaurants in Copenhagen, 600 bottles were made annually from 2008 to 2010. Each bottle boasts an expiration date of 2059, which means you have another 47 years before that smoky "tar and rope" taste goes bad.

8-BREWDOG'S THE END OF HISTORY

Price: $765/330ml

ABV: 55%

Leave it to the Scots to come up with one of the strongest—and weirdest—brews out there. BrewDog’s potent 55% ABV blond Belgian ale is infused with nettles and juniper berries, but don’t expect a light and fruity taste. This beer has been described as having tastes of mushrooms, soy sauce, beef, leather and tobacco. The kicker? Each bottle is presented in a stuffed squirrel or stoat that was specially created by a taxidermist for this limited edition beer. Don’t worry, animal lovers: The company claims all the animals used in the production of this beer were a result of roadkill.

9-NAIL BREWING'S ANTARCTIC NAIL ALE

Price: $800-$1815/500ml

ABV: 10%

Nail Brewing’s Antarctic Nail Ale takes the expression “cracking open a cold one” to a whole new level. As the story goes, members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society brought melted ice from an Antarctic iceberg back to Perth, Australia, to be used in one of Nail Brewing’s limited edition brews. The result was a 30-bottle run of Antarctic Nail Ale. A beer you could feel good about drinking, 100% of the profits from an auction of this refreshing pale ale went to the Sea Shepherds to aid in protecting the world’s marine life.