Britain's strongest beer is 'totally irresponsible'

Promotion of ‘Britain’s strongest beer’ is totally irresponsible, says North West health campaign group Our Life. The campaign group says the promotion of Tokyo oak aged stout, a new high-strength beer launched by the Scottish brewery, Brew Dog, is “totally irresponsible”.

The beer, which is believed to be Britain’s strongest ale, is sold in 330ml bottles and has an alcohol by volume (ABV) content of 18.2%, meaning that a single pint would contain 12 units. Reacting to the beer’s launch, Our Life chief executive Dr Alison Giles said: “From a public health perspective, we should be trying to promote more responsible drinking and reducing alcohol volume not increasing it.

“The advertising of this drink appears to glorify its high alcohol content and we think it’s yet another reason why we need an effective code of practice for the alcohol industry. Whilst the government is currently consulting on such a code of practice, this will be powerless against irresponsible and worrying product developments like this. More needs to be done to bring the industry into line,” said Dr Giles.

Mike Jones, alcohol programme manager for the Greater Manchester Public Health Network, commented: “The very availability of this beer at such a strength will encourage people to want to drink it, as all our research shows that availability is a key driver that leads to an increase in drinking. If a man drank just a pint of this beer they would be drinking more than half of their weekly limit in one go and would be classified as a binge drinker.”

Tokyo’s makers claim that the beer will “help alleviate the country's irresponsible binge drinking culture" and is “priced in a way that encourages responsible consumption and marketed to people who understand and enjoy beer”. Commenting on the claims, Dr Giles said: “While Brew Dog may think that they know their target market, selling beer as strong as this will inevitably be seen by many as a 'get drunk quick' drink. Promoting the product on the basis of its high alcohol content is totally irresponsible and we hope that outlets in the North West will refuse to stock it.”