Sam Adams' 28% ABV Beer Is Back To Knock You On Your Ass

One of the world's strongest beers is back on the market. Samuel Adams' Utopias, which comes in a shiny nifty bottle, clocks in at a whopping 28% alcohol by volume (ABV), compared to the 4-5% ABV of the leading mass-market beers. Each batch is only released every two years, and due to some states' regulations surrounding the maximum ABV for beer, it's technically outlawed in certain parts of the country.

So, let's start with the bad news: Residents of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia will not be able to purchase Utopias. That's 15 states, in case you lost track.

Sam Adams Utopias is "a blend of multiple batches of the brewery's earlier Extreme Beers which are further aged in multiple types of barrels." The brewery used American bourbon barrels, Scotch barrels, fortified wine casks from Portugal, and French cognac barrels. New this year is the addition of barrels that once held Pineau des Charentes, a rare French aperitif.

The beer itself has a ruby black color and isn't carbonated. Beer, by the way, doesn't have to be carbonated to qualify as beer; it's just that many prefer it to have some degree of bubbliness to it.

Sam Adams doesn't recommend you down a full pint of this in one sitting, but rather sip on two ounces at a time. And don't drink it chilled, either—the brewery says that serving it at room temperature will release all of its aromas.

This is advisable for a lot of different beers, not just one that's illegal in 15 states. The ideal IPA, for example, is one that's consumed at a temperature of about 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

Let's get to the stunning price tag. The suggested retail price for a 24.5-oz. bottle of Sam Adams Utopias is $240. Incredibly steep, yes, but notably, this is the same amount it went for when it was last released in 2021. Apparently inflation hasn't hit everything just yet. That's probably cold comfort given that this beer runs a quarter of a grand, but it does have us wondering: Would you throw down for a $240 beer?