At a smooth €270 a bottle, it had better be the best beer in the world
The brewer, Scandinavia’s biggest, introduced a beer today that costs 2,008 Danish kroner (€269.44), the price being based on the year of its introduction. The Vintage Number 1 brew will be sold at three Copenhagen restaurants, including Noma, a holder of two Michelin stars and the world’s 15th-best restaurant in 2007, according to S Pellegrino.
The product, costing 357 times more than Carlsberg’s main Danish lager brand, has been developed to challenge luxury wines in the gourmet restaurant market and capitalise on rising individual wealth.
“We can feel that there’s an increasing market for this type of product, as some of our customers order extremely expensive wines without blinking an eye,” Lau Richter, restaurant chief at the Noma restaurant, said. “Ten years ago, it was a rare event selling a 1,000 kroner bottle of wine at a Danish restaurant, now we do it every day.”
Carlsberg has produced 600 bottles of the 10.5% proof beer, each of 37.5 centiliters (0.8 pint). Another version costing 2,009 kroner will be introduced next year and one for 2,010 kroner the year after, the company said.
“We’re trying to raise the bar for what a beer can be,” Jens Eiken, the brew master at Jacobsen who developed the product, said. The beverage is “cheap” considering the amount of time the brewery spent developing it, he said.
Mr Eiken wouldn’t disclose how long Vintage Number 1 took to develop, saying only that the amount of time spent on it was such that the company doesn’t expect the project to be profitable.
The beer contains hints of prune, caramel, vanilla and oak tree from the French and Swedish wooden casks in which it is stored, Mr Eiken said. It has a chestnut brown colour, little foam and goes well with cheeses and desserts.
Carlsberg has no plans to export Vintage Number 1. Some bottles will be offered for sale next week on the brewer’s website.
“There are people at restaurants paying 20,000 kroner for a bottle of wine or port, and why wouldn’t they pay the same for a beer of exceptional quality,” Mr Eiken asked.
Vintage Number 1 will be the world’s most expensive beer, according to Mr Eiken. That title is currently held by Boston Beer’s Utopia, which costs about $100 (€68) for a 72cl bottle, according to the website, Most-expensive.net.
Bierodrome, a London bar, sells Belgian beer Vielle Bon Secours for £635 (€857) per 15 litre bottle, which is 12 times less than the litre price of Vintage Number 1.
