When is a beer not a beer?

Back in my youth I worked briefly for the Jolly Roger brewery. At Christmas they brewed a beer to the strength of the new year. So in 1990 it was OG1090, or about 9 % by volume. To get it to that strength involved using Champagne yeast (our beer yeast didn’t survive that level of alcohol toxicity) and supplementing the malted barley with large quantities of brown sugar. I thought it tasted vile and after complaints from the local constabulary it was only served in halve pints and a drink drive warning was put on the hand pull. It went for the then outrageous price of £2 a half. I thought it probably pushed the definition of ‘beer’ to the limit, rather approaching a malted barley & hop wine.

So how did they manage this?

I’m no expert (I just drove the brewery van) but I’m surprised that you can brew a beer this strong. So if anyone knows about this stuff and would care to enlighten me, please comment.